In Media Limbo

"You know, everyone needs someone to look up to. Why shouldn't it be us?"- John Legend

Some of the work I've contributed to.

I think that most of the days of my week are spent dealing with the media. My job merely exists to shape how we should view women in the media. I am a production manager for Harper's Bazaar International, particularly Greece. I spend most of my day focusing on the trend for the month and trying to find the perfect outfits for the model to wear for the shoot. Afterwards, there are days spent critiquing the model's body and expression and assisting in retouching what "just won't work": her big calves, her dull eyes, etc. I feel like am in a constant limbo; I know that the way people view themselves are just a reflection of what they see in the media but, I aid to that every. single. DAY. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do but there's a little grain of hypocrisy in it, don't you think?

I think we live in a world of hypocrisy. In my opinion, it's hard to get out of it. One of the sites I visit regularly is Refinery29. I started reading it in middle school; it was a place to gain a little fashion inspiration and learn the best places and things to do in New York City (a place that I saw myself growing both intellectually and socially). It was a site that dared you to be different and to appreciate your flaws through clothing. Within the next five years it shifted from this alternative fashion/lifestyle website to this gossip-mongering source of crappy tabloid information. I remember there being an article talking about Kylie Jenner's lips: Are they real? Are they fake?!? . There was a lot of backlash in the comments about the increased Kardashian-based articles. The editorial contributor stated that the site only posts those kind of articles because it ends up being the most popular...whether it be totally superficial. I still read Refinery29 everyday though!; it does come with a little eye-roll here and there.

Ironically enough, my presence in social media has drastically decreased in the last five years.  I used to spend hours upon hours a day on Tumblr writing diary entries and reposting pictures and quotes. In addition, I would say 9,000 out of my 12.2k tweets were written between the years 2011-2013. Now, I barely post anything. I think this is due to the fact that I've not only matured but I've realized that I want my social media outlets to reflect who I am, who I've become and who I want to be. Since I don't know the answers to those three just yet, my social media is on hiatus...ish.