We have a bit of a girl-crush on Meghan Markle at the moment. But while searching through YouTube interviews and social media posts, and seeing this intelligent, successful, flawless Duchess-to-be, it was easy to feel inadequate and a bit FML*.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a UN Women\u2019s Advocate, a successful wealthy actress, an ambassador for World Vision, a counsellor for One Young World, and she has the adoration of a prince, all bundled up in the pert, slim body (and face) of a supermodel. Is there anything less than perfect about this woman?<\/p>\n
Actually, yes. Do you know why I know this for absolute sure? Because she is a human being.<\/em><\/p>\n
She poops. She farts. I bet she has even had a case of thrush and athlete\u2019s foot in her time. She has said twattish things and felt shit about them for days. She has felt inadequate and doubted her abilities countless times. She has cried so hard because life hasn\u2019t gone the way she wanted it. She has been in hundreds of pictures where she looked rough (honestly!). She has stunk so badly of BO on a night out that she has wet tissued her armpits in the loos. She has vomited in her hair – at least once – and gone at least two days longer than is socially acceptable without a shower. She has put on tights to hide her hairy legs, and her morning breath may well be vile.**<\/p>\n
But this isn\u2019t a scathing attack on Meghan Markle, nor would it be on any man or woman. This is just about waving a little flag saying \u2018hey there, remember media only shows the best bits!\u2019<\/p>\n
And this happens every day on all our social media feeds. By only seeing a carefully selected feed of images and dialogue from our peers (<\/em>all of whom poop, fart etc) we are all being duped into thinking that we are not the \u2018normal\u2019 ones because actually our real lives don\u2019t look like other people\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u2026 and that\u2019s the beef. What you are seeing isn\u2019t <\/em>their reality either. It\u2019s a carefully curated work of art. They have shared that particular picture because it is a fitting jigsaw piece of the life they aspire<\/em> to create, not<\/em> the life they live.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not real!<\/p>\n
It is likely that they tried for hours to get that perfect shot too. On a recent social media training course, we were told that you should be spending 2-3 hours setting up and taking the perfect Instagram picture. We should be \u2018looking for perfection\u2019<\/em>. Scary!<\/p>\n
Striving to obtain the perfect picture for social media is causing a surge in mental health problems for our young girls. In some cases it is literally killing them. Russell Howard\u2019s TV show recently featured a story about a 68% rise in teenage girls self-harming over the last ten years, and how this may be linked to the growing selfie culture and the untamable habit of comparing themselves to others. (Read full article in the Guardian here<\/a>)<\/p>\n