Final Reflections: Why Hire Me?

Hi guys, above is my little intro. Hope you enjoy! Anyone else not like hearing the sound of their voice recorded? Or is that just me?

Why am I an expert?

• Proficient in using WordPress and all social platforms
• Have done analytics for TheFashionablyBroke, Cynthia Rowley, and DeNada (all have large followings on social)
• Content creation for DeNada and Cynthia Rowley (made a social calendar for DeNada)
• Created content and a social media calendar for the D.C. salon, Karma by Erwin Gomez
• In tune to social media trends
• Contributed blog posts for CollegeFashionista for three years
• Accounts linked here:

Why am I a subject area expert?

While most of my experience blogging and in social media management has been in the fashion industry, I wanted to expand on something else I felt passionate about: feminism and political activism. This is something I never had the chance to write about before and I am grateful to have been able to have the platform to do so. Feminism to me is about choice. There is still a stigma to identifying as a feminist, maybe not here at G.W., but it does exist.

I felt conflicted because I’ve worked in an industry that helps perpetuate unattainable standards of beauty, but it’s still an industry I want to work in. I wanted to demonstrate that just because I’m interested in fashion and beauty doesn’t mean I’m not a feminist. While I agree that the standards of beauty perpetuated by the media are unattainable, I still feel that you can enjoy typically “feminine” things such as fashion and doing your makeup. I’ve written posts about body image, fitspo on Instagram and my own struggles with anorexia as well as street harassment in this blog. Some of these subjects are things I’ve never talked about, but I have definitely learned more from my research for this blog.

I shared with you my favorite documentary on feminism and body image, something I never realized was related. Here is the trailer below again.https://soundcloud.com/liz-lepore/social-media-final-assignment-2

I found this quote particularly poignant: “Girls get the message from very early on that what’s most important is how they look, that their value, their worth depends on that and boys get the message that this is what’s important about girls.”   Here’s one of my favorite Ted Talks on the pressures women face to look “perfect.” My favorite line is when Cameron Russel says, “If you are ever wondering, if I have thinner thighs and shinier hair, will I be happier? You just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes and they’re the most physically insecure women probably on the planet.”

I can say from personal experience, being thinner will not make you happier. Some of the darkest times in my life were when I was the thinnest. I wrote about that here as well as on this blog.

Part III: Trends to Know

I learned a lot about social media trends from my classmates. We tweeted every week. Here are some of my favorites:

I recently had to write in a cover letter what I thought about “Instagrammable foods.” No joke. Kristina’s article got me thinking about how a Starbucks drink blew up due to social media and that there was backlash from the baristas.

Emily helped me keep up with all of the recent controversy surrounding Uber. #deleteuber was trending and this article points to the darker side of social when our privacy is at risk.

Kyle’s tweet reflected on an episode of BlackMirror that we watched for class where people had chips inserted into their bodies to store all of their memories. This tweet shows that isn’t too far from reality, which frightens me.

Lauren’s tweet reflects something we’ve talked a lot about both in this class and my ethics class. In my opinion Facebook does have a responsibility to filter content.

This poll that Kyle tweeted helped me keep up with the latest trends in social. I was a bit surprised by the results but am guessing a large part of Bitmoji’s growth is the new snapchat feature that shows your Bitmoji when you chat someone on the app.

And now for some of my own tweets:

Having the responsibility to tweet every Sunday about social news really helped me stay on top of the current trends, which will help in a job situation because I’ll be in tune to the latest trends and will better be able to engage with followers.

Here are some of my tweets:

I had no idea you could make so much money from memes.

This point about social media causing anxiety and depression is reflected in the Miss Representation documentary as well.

Above is one of my favorite articles I’ve read about social. It’s funny but also a little disheartening. I’ve definitely become more politically active since this past election. See the full article here. I’ve seen increased politicization in many aspects of our culture including fashion (see Prabal Gurung’s feminist collection at NYFW here) and at the Oscars and the Superbowl to name a few.

Issues Facing Social Media:

Activism on social media is often critiqued as “slacktivism.” However, there have been numerous studies shown that support the value of promoting causes on social media. Personally, I have become much more engaged in activism on my social media channels under this new administration. For example, I posted a photograph of me holding a protest sign at the Women’s March, have retweeted Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood, and other causes and politicians who I support.

Here’s the study:

“The study, led by Pablo Barberá of New York University’s Center for Data Science and Sandra González-Bailón at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, analyzed Twitter activity related to the 2011 Occupy movement and the 2013 Gezi Park protests. It found that those who were not directly involved in the live protests, including those who retweeted just once, create virtual content “at levels that are comparable to core participants.”

Read the full article here.

Also check out my photo below.

I don’t see activism on social media going anywhere anytime soon. More and more brands are becoming more up front with their political views, as seen in Prabal Gurung’s latest collection featuring T-shirts with slogans such as “The Future is Female” and “This is What a Feminist Looks Like.”

That’s all for now.

Best,

Liz

 

Social Media Fast Reflection

Last Sunday (which happened to be Easter Sunday), I started my social media fast. I refrained from checking any of my social channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc.) for 24 hours. I started my fast at 10 a.m. last Sunday and ended it at 10 a.m. on Monday.

I had done this assignment for another class in the fall (media, tech, and culture) except in that assignment, we had to fast from all technology, which was considerably harder. At least I could use my laptop to work on assignments this time.

This was me at the start of my fast:

Sunday’s are often my “catch-up” on homework days because I always intend to start on Friday or Saturday but usually don’t get enough done. Last Sunday during my fast, I mostly worked on homework (boring I know).

In order to refrain from checking social media, I decided to click “do not disturb” on my phone. I also clicked individually on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat apps to disable notifications for the 24-hour period so I wouldn’t be tempted to check. This reminds me of some of our class discussions when we talked about how you have to “opt-out” of social because the default is that you have opted in. It got me thinking that it was a bit sad that to prevent myself from checking snapchat, I had to physically disable notifications.

This was me by mid-day Sunday (I’m the girl who looks like she’s crying and about to fall off the hammock):

While I often find myself getting anxious about responding to texts and snapchats etc. I found myself just as anxious not being able to check and feeling like I was missing out a.k.a. “fomo.”

What I did while I was alone and bored:

I thought it would be tough to pass the time while I was alone because I usually check social a lot throughout the day, especially when I’m alone, but I ended up spending my day 1) getting homework done and 2) finding myself binge-watching Vanderpump rules. Yes, I said that. I thought I would be more productive, but I traded my time spent scrolling through memes for trashy reality T.V.

What I did while I was with people and bored:

I spent most of the day alone doing work because I had a ton to catch up on, but once I had finished, I hung out with my roommates in our living room. They were watching one of my favorite terrible in a good way throwback movies “From Justin to Kelly” with Kelly Clarkson, so I watched the end with them. The funny thing was, I missed out on the movie because my roommate snapchatted me a video to say it was on. I walked into the living room like “why didn’t you tell me???” and she said “I snapchatted you!”

The realization that my roommate and I use snapchat to communicate when we are literally in the same apartment made me feel pretty silly.

This meme sums it up:

Aside from missing the beginning of a movie, I realized I really didn’t miss much by not checking social for 24-hours. Yes, I missed a bunch of snapchats and didn’t like my friend’s Instagrams for the day of them at Easter brunch but I didn’t miss anything truly important.

Another aspect was the commercial one. I realized how much of the content I post has a commercial undertone. I often send snapchats using the paid filters from companies like Gatorade during the superbowl or anything else that is up for the day. I also do this on Instagram. I often tag my location when I’m at a restaurant, bar, etc. and sometimes get a comment from the company. This happened to me when I was at the W Hotel for my birthday. By tagging their location, I’m promoting the lounge for free. Here is a collection of some of my “commercial” promotions that I made inadvertently on Instagram.

So according to my Instagram feed, I’ve essentially created free ads for the W hotel (both in D.C. and Barcelona), a restaurant in Milan, and many more. See my slideshow below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I had no idea how many times I was promoting restaurants/brands. They should pay me! Too bad I don’t actually have enough followers to be a professional Instagrammer. I’ll definitely think twice when I tag locations. I also think I’ll try to start doing social media fasts from time to time, especially when I have a lot of homework to get done or am feeling particularly overwhelmed. I think taking a break is healthy for everyone, including me.

 

Comparison on social media and body image

I just re-read Madelyn’s post on comparison via social media and how to mitigate this. Check out her post here. It got me thinking about comparison, particularly as it relates to body image.

I often find myself coming back to this Teddy Roosevelt quote.

In a Time article written last August, the author calls social media a “toxic mirror” that helps promote the thin ideal. She cites a recent study that shows that social media use is linked to negative body image.

“Sociocultural models of body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance highlight the role of the media in the development and maintenance of women’s body image concerns (Fitzsimmons-Craft et al., 2014; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999), and suggest that appearance-based social comparisons may in part be responsible for this association. Indeed, research on both traditional forms of media (e.g., magazines, television; see Myers & Crowther, 2009, for a review) and social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram; see Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016; Holland & Tiggemann, 2016; for reviews) provides evidence for the importance of appearance comparisons in the link between media usage and women’s appearance concerns. comparisons in people’s lives. “

We have long heard that traditional media (magazines etc.) have a negative impact on body image, but it is only recently that social media has been studied and shown to have similar negative affects.

This may seem self-explanatory given the vast number of “fitspo” accounts that feature impeccably toned women as well as celebrities posing, showing off their enviable figures. On fitspiration accounts, the author writes, “Millions of followers embrace their regimens for diet and exercise, but increasingly, the drive for “wellness” and “clean eating” has become stealthy cover for more dieting and deprivation. This year, an analysis of 50 so-called “fitspiration” websites revealed messaging that was indistinguishable, at times, from pro-anorexia (pro-ana) or “thinspiration” websites. Both contained strong language inducing guilt about weight or the body, and promoted dieting, restraint and fat and weight stigmatization.”

I recently searched Instagram and found over 44 million results for the #fitspo. Here are some examples:

One example is Jen Selter, a twenty-something fitness guru who has 11 million followers on Instagram. She has become famous particularly for her toned butt. She even spawned a #seltering, which is a pose showing off her butt.

Celebrities like Khloé Kardashian have gotten in on the fitness trend.

Another Instagram influencer famous for her figure is Alexis Ren, who has 8.5 million followers.

It has become all too easy to find yourself scrolling through an Instagram black hole of images like these ones. While I am all for promoting a healthy lifestyle by eating well and working out, I think a lot of these accounts cross the line.

Sexual Harassment: Here vs. abroad

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been meaning to write a post comparing my experience of sexual harassment/catcalling here in the states vs. abroad. When I was in Barcelona, it was very common to be catcalled on a daily basis, even in the middle of the day. While catcalling and sexual harassment is definitely still a problem in the U.S., I thought it would be interesting to compare my experience, because in my own experience, it was quite different.

Before I went abroad, I went to the pre-abroad orientation at G.W. We were shown slideshows about safety, homesickness etc. as a whole group, but then we broke into smaller groups based on the location we would be studying in. There was a G.W. student who happened to have been my D.C. bound leader freshman year who had gone to Barcelona the previous year. She gave us some general tips, but also mentioned that we should be prepared to be catcalled a lot. She made a joke about Spanish men loving “Americanitas” or American girls who were studying abroad. I laughed and didn’t think much of it. I was far more concerned about making friends and getting lost at that point.

Above: My friend Megan and I in front of the club Opium.

Fast forward to when I arrived in Barcelona a few months later in January. I was exhausted from the 8-hour flight, but was too excited to sleep much the first couple of days. My roommates and I went out to the popular club Opium one of our first nights. I had heard from friends how fun it was, so I put on my clubbing dress and a pair of heels and went out with my new friends. Once we got there, I was surprised to find that American pop and EDM songs blared. There were plenty of other American abroad students there (which I would later find is very typical of that particular club).

Within the first few minutes, there were tons of European guys that came up to us, a large group of American girls. I was genuinely shocked by how aggressive they were. I had been out in New York and D.C. many times, so I thought I had seen it all before, but boy was I wrong. Multiple guys came up and grabbed my butt and one even boldly asked how old I was. When I said my real age (20 at the time), he asked if I had “ever kissed a 30 year old before.”Confused, I said no. He then proceeded to start making out with me— gross! I quickly ran away to my friends.

I wanted to share this video of comedian Iliza Schessinger talking about catcalling. Hope you enjoy. (Watch the catcalling section from the 29 min mark to 33 min).

My favorite quote from her skit is this: “For the girls who might not know: you can wear whatever you want, it doesn’t give someone the right to treat you like an animal.” 

It wasn’t just nights out at clubs where sexual harassment and catcalling was an issue. It was something that happened pretty much every day. One day, it was a gorgeous sunny day and my Spanish professor had assigned us to go on a field trip. We were walking through the maze of narrow streets in El Born, the Gothic district, looking for famous monuments.

I was in the middle of a conversation with my guy friend, a student in the class. It was in the middle of the afternoon, probably 1 p.m. A (much) older guy said something to me. I naively thought he was just being nice and saying hello, so I said hi back. My friend immediately started laughing at me. “He was catcalling you. Why did you say hi?” he asked. I brushed it off, but was certainly grossed out.

Above: My friend Chrissy and I at the Ice Bar in Barcelona.

I had a professor for two different history classes abroad, Barcelona: The Cosmopolitan City, and Contemporary Spanish Politics. She explained to us that in Spain, male chauvinism has always been a prominent aspect of the culture. She said that while certain political leaders have attempted to improve conditions for women, by legalizing abortion and increasing paid family leave, for instance, the sexes are still very uneven.

Back to the U.S.:

I went to New York for the summer after I got back from Barcelona. I was interning at Cynthia Rowley, a fashion designer in the West Village. I was living in a dorm in the New Yorker hotel, right near Penn Station, which was a very busy area. I certainly noticed that I was catcalled less than in Spain, but it was still pretty common, more so than in D.C. I found. One morning, at about 10 a.m., I was walking to the bus station (Port Authority) because I was headed to South Jersey for my friend’s graduation party. On the way, a guy was riding his bike and I swear I’m not making this up: he yelled “sexy ass cheeks” at me. Yuck. I was wearing a romper that was admittedly a little short, but was definitely not trying to attract that sort of attention.

Analytics:

Ok, on to my blog analytics. I just checked the WordPress analytics for my site. Here’s what I found:

 

So it looks like I had a lot more traffic to my blog in January and February, but it fell off in March. So far, it looks like I’m getting more views in April, but we’re only still in the beginning of the month.

I also saw that all of my views appear to be from people within the United States. While this isn’t too surprising given many of them are probably my classmates, who therefore live in the U.S., it would be nice to be able to expand a bit, especially given my interest in travel blogging.

I also found this stat above interesting. It shows which links people clicked on when reading my site. Shoutout to Cat from Teen Angst Tips! Unsurprisingly, my visual poll data from Easel and the New York Times article I linked to got the most clicks.

Plan:

1)  Start promoting my blog on my social channels. Like many of my peers, I have a sizable amount of Facebook friends (over 1,000) as well as a fair number on Instagram and Twitter. I could boost the amount of views by promoting my blog on these channels. I also have some friends on social who are from outside the United States, so I may be able to change that demographic a bit.

2) I need to start adding more visuals. I have received this comment from a couple of readers as well as from Professor Usher. I need to do this to break up the text a bit, since my writing can be a bit lengthy.

3) Add more external links. I liked being able to see the stat that said where viewers were clicking on from my site. I want to keep adding more relevant external links to help draw readers in.

 

 

 

 

Women in the Workplace: My thoughts

I recently read a New York Times Op Ed called, “Do Millenial Men Want Stay-at-Home Wives? by Stephanie Coontz. It was posted on March 31st, just a few days ago. In the column, the author examines whether millenials are more likely to support female partners who work than previous generations. I was surprised to see that there is evidence to support that millenials are less likely to support women working outside the home than in the past. Read the full article here.

One of the striking statistics Coontz shares is the following:

In 1994, only 42 percent of high school seniors agreed that the best family was one where the man was the main income earner and the woman took care of the home. But in 2014, 58 percent of seniors said they preferred that arrangement.

See my chart below:

https://www.easel.ly/index/embedFrame/easel/5312659

Another piece of data the author discusses is that while the majority of millenial women voted for Clinton in the last election, the majority of millenial men did not. I had heard statistics that suggested that the majority of millenials (both men and women) had voted for Clinton. Here is one such finding from a Bloomberg poll (see more here): “Among the younger portion of the millennial generation, 18 to 29 year olds, Trump earned 37 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 55 percent.”

However, in the article, according to a recent poll, researchers found a distinct gender gap among millenials. See my chart below.
https://www.easel.ly/index/embedFrame/easel/5312633

 

This data is troubling to me, as a young woman about to graduate college and (hopefully) begin my career. I recently read the book, Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg, which I highly recommend. Here’s a Ted Talk she gave about the barriers facing women today called, “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.”

In the talk, Sandberg suggests that women often scale back from their careers as they begin to think about having children, sometimes long before they are even pregnant. She also talks about the uneven distribution of childcare and housework between couples. She talks about one particular finding: “The data shows above all else that success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women.” This makes it difficult, she argues, for women to pursue leadership positions in their careers.

https://embed.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders

What do you think? I for one, was surprised by the findings in the article. I would have expected that public opinion would be moving towards acceptance of women working outside the home, not the other way around. It looks like we still have a long ways to go towards achieving equality.

Doing it for the gram: A semester abroad according to Instagram

Last spring, I studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain. It was truly an incredible experience, as cliché as that sounds. I got the opportunity to live in a foreign country and really get a feel for it, as opposed to just traveling somewhere on vacation for a few days. Because of my location, I also had the opportunity to travel around Europe almost every weekend.

What I began noticing was that almost every weekend, everyone from my program, IES abroad, would travel to the same cities and post the same photos at the same monuments, museums, signs, and even restaurants. It seemed as though wherever my friends and I went, we ran into American abroad students. We all went to the same places—most of us came armed with so called “abroad bibles,” a concept I had never heard of until a couple of months before I went abroad.

One particular cringe-worthy moment was my utter panic when I left my phone in the locker room at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. “How will I take a picture?” I asked my cousin, in a state of despair. We then proceeded to take countless photos of each other in the Lagoon, carefully balancing our phones so they wouldn’t get wet. The photo of course, also had to be flattering. No, not that one: my arms look fat, I remember saying to her. We settled on the one below.

Here is one of said photos:

My friend Megan, who had studied in Florence a year before me passed on said “bible.” I’ve attached it below, in case anyone is interested. Essentially, it’s a word document of all of the restaurants, sights, bars, clubs, etc. to go to in each popular European city. To my surprise, my roommates, two girls from the Indiana University, had the same exact “bible.”

The bible: THEABROADBIBLE

Was everyone just doing it for the gram? See my Gif below of some of my particularly cliché abroad photos. The mountain ones were taken at Monserrat, a stunning monastery about an hour outside of the city that I had never heard of before. We went within the first couple of weeks, but by the end of the semester, I don’t think a single one of my friends did not take identical photos perched on the edge of the mountain.

make action GIFs like this at MakeaGif

I remember distinctly one night in Amsterdam. We went to a dive bar and were sitting at a long table with about 15-20 people. I was wedged between my two roommates and their sorority friends from school. More and more Americans who they all knew showed up and it dawned on me that they all went to Indiana together and were all in greek life. One guy even made a speech about how happy he was to be with “family” even though they were “far from Bloomington.” Yeah, not me dude—I’d never been to Bloomington. When they referred to it as “B-town” I thought they were talking about Boston.

Below: Me and my IU squad biking in Amsterdam, note the matching hats

I realized that this was not a coincidence, nor was it an isolated incident. All of them were in a massive group chat and planned to travel to the same cities on the same weekends. They knew which bars to go to because of the “bible” or simply older friends. It seemed like everyone knew something that I didn’t.

While I am so thankful to have been able to travel to so many countries: the Netherlands, Ireland, England, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, France etc., I started to feel like I was a walking cliché. I kept seeing the same photos on Instagram from various different people in any given weekend. I don’t think a weekend went by that I didn’t see someone posing in front of the John Lennon wall in Prague, somewhere I unfortunately didn’t get to travel to. Same goes for the Guiness factory, Cliffs of Mohr, Eiffel tower, and even the baths in Budapest. Is there anywhere “off the beaten path” anymore?

On Body Image: NEDA Week

Hi Everyone,

This week I wanted to talk about something a little more personal. This past week was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which has special meaning to me. According to NEDA, “Spearheaded by the National Eating Disorders Association, the goal of National Eating Disorders Awareness (#NEDAwareness) Week is to shine the spotlight on eating disorders and put life-saving resources into the hands of those in need.” Ten years ago, when I was 11-years-old, I was diagnosed with anorexia. That March, I went to Princeton University Hospital to receive treatment in the eating disorders unit. Two years ago, I wrote an article for the online publication, XoJane on my experience with anorexia.

Click here to read the article.

Above: My younger brother John and I on vacation in the Cayman Islands. This was February. I went into treatment at Princeton a little over a month later. 

Above: A photo from the same trip with my brother and younger cousin. (Notice the awkward middle school stage lol).

 

At the time, I was embarrassed about my eating disorder because of the stigma I associated with it. Instead of telling my classmates, I simply said I had mono. I missed three months of school, was in the hospital for one month inpatient and one month outpatient and then went back to school for seventh grade the next school year.

Here’s a photo of me after undergoing treatment:

I posted the same photos from the article because I hated taking pictures of myself, which I now view as a symptom of my poor body image. I started treatment at about 50 pounds and ended at 75. Click to view a clip from the documentary I wrote about in my last post, Miss Representation on eating disorders and body image. Note: the stats end at about the 8 minute mark.

According to the film, 78% of women reported that they were unhappy with their bodies by the age of 17. Body image struggles are all too common. The reason Miss Representation resonated with me specifically was because of the focus on body dysmorphia and anorexia. I never thought of these issues from a feminist lens until I watched the film. According to NEDA, here are some more statistics:

National surveys estimate that 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

• 0.9% of women and 0.3% of men had anorexia during their life
• 1.5% of women and 0.5% of men had bulimia during their life
• 3.5% of women and 2.0% of men had binge eating disorder during their life

When another group of researchers followed a group of adolescent girls for eight years, beginning at age 12, they found even higher rates of eating disorders:

• 5.2% of the girls met criteria for DSM5 anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
• When the researchers included nonspecific eating disorder symptoms, a total of 13.2% of the girls had suffered from a DSM-5 eating disorder by age 20.

My hope is that by being open about my own struggles with anorexia, I can help shed light on the issue. To anyone who may be struggling, I want you to know that you’re not alone. While I still struggle off and on, especially in times of stress, I want to remind everyone that recovery is possible.

 

 

How I became a Feminist

Hi everyone,

Seeing as my blog title is “The Modern Feminist,” I figured it was time to tackle the topic of how I decided to identify as a feminist myself. I have to admit, I was a bit late to the game. My parents and extended family definitely did not identify as feminists (my family is pretty conservative Catholic- not that there’s anything wrong with religion necessarily, but they just never talked about feminism). One quarter of high school health, we had a guest speaker come in to talk about body image and media literacy. We had learned about eating disorders, but mostly just the basics. She showed us the trailer of a documentary called Miss Representation.

You can watch it here (also the full documentary is on Netflix right now. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it already).

We only had time to watch the trailer, but I immediately went home and rented the movie. Seeing all of the images from T.V. shows I had watched, music videos, and magazine images together struck a chord. While I knew that images could be altered using photoshop and that Hollywood was notorious for valuing appearance, I had never really thought about it as a broader issue, beyond just fashion magazines and Hollywood. Seeing all of the statistics also hit home.

While the documentary is a bit dated (notice the old cell phones LOL), I still think it’s pertinent to issues we face today. Towards the end of high school (and throughout college), I’ve read a lot more about feminism and for me at least, it just means equality. I saw a funny sign at the Women’s March, “Feminism: the radical belief that women are people.”

Here are some of the best signs, if you want to take a look.

And here’s a picture of me at the march (more to come on the march later):

All smiles:

I would like to point out, however, that I do see some minor issues with the movie, seeing it again a few years later. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being into makeup or fashion and your appearance in general, but I do think that too much emphasis is put on looks above all else. Trust me, I’m a fashion girl: I interned at Cynthia Rowley. I also have an embarrassing obsession with the Real Housewives (which they talk about in the movie as a negative).

A question I wanted to pose is first, has anyone else seen this movie? What did you think of it? Also, do you think we’re still in the same place we were when it was released (in 2011)?