Role Models
"So many girls want attention, none seems to want respect."
- somewhere on my Twitter feed.
It was an article from
that I read the other night --- it was about the frontal lobe of our brains in its final developing stage that happens when we are 20s. I was hit with slight panic and then relief upon reading it:
panic
, because we happen to be living in a world that glorifies people we don't know much of {*
guilty
*} and I was afraid I am going to be stuck with what I know now. I was then
relieved
to remember I was still, after all, in my 20s. I am still a little bit impressionable and I could feed myself the right information and I am all good.
Wildfox's Clueless Lookbook.
In my youth, I tried to assume a Cher Horowitz stance everywhere. Hmm.
Call it age, or mellowing out or simply a change in life's directions but here I am enumerating life's role models for the last two years --- none of whom I would've ever tried to emulate in my early 20s. While I wouldn't dare say I was a delinquent juvenile, I had a pretty polarized view of life, I saw lessons differently,
I wasn't the heroine of my life
just yet, I was the prodigal daughter and well, let's just say that if Forbes does say that how we live our 20s is how the rest of our adult life will be, then I am pretty comfortable with who I am now. And if only for the quote in the beginning of this post, maybe we do need some new role models --- or refer to history for the great ones.
1.
Audrey Hepburn
. Some years ago, I remember telling a colleague that I may be the only girl who didn't choose Audrey over Marilyn Monroe. Today, I had taken off Marilyn's iconic black and white poster from my library's wall and replaced it with a framed photo of Audrey's pose and her famous line, "Paris is always a good idea." Not that there was anything wrong with Marilyn, I still liked some of her principles in life, just NOT all. It all started when
lent me her
What Would Audrey Do book
and I fell into the rabbit hole of how ladylike Audrey was -- how her values have withstood her fame. She never needed all the attention yet she had gotten every ounce of respect she deserved and more --- she was beauty and philanthropy in one. She got through two divorces with so much grace. There was certainly a non questionable reason why she was every girl's role model, including mine.
2.
Kate Middleton
. Maybe she is our generation's Princess Di. Maybe not, because she is an entirely different person --- I honestly find her so real and constantly shying away from the public eye. I have to admit that the more someone tries to hide, the more is my interest piqued -- like I cannot wait to read her biography. I love how despite the ravenous paparazzi eye on her, she is classy and sophisticated. Always. Plus her fashion sense is just impeccable.
3.
Alexa von Tobel
. I cannot shut up about Alexa. Well, not her, really, but probably my favorite personal finance blog, management tool and website of all time,
. I don't think I ever shut up about Learnvest whenever I have a chance to talk about personal finance. As a girl who makes a living out of crafting websites from nothing, I find Learnvest to be a gold mine when it comes to managing a subject close to my heart:
Money
. "I run my financial life as I run with my social life." "With endless accounts, bills and receipts floating around, feeling truly organized can be challenging. I run my financial life like I run my social life - I recommend setting up calendar alerts for everything so you never miss an important date. Forgetting to pay a bill should never happen, and it won't if you have everything organized properly." Her interview with Gwyneth Paltrow on
was all sorts of awesome.
4.
Sheryl Sandberg
. Former Facebook COO is as feisty as feisty can get and there's no stopping her. Before Facebook, Sandberg was with Google and is reportedly strictly goes home at 5 PM to spend her nights with her family. I don't know how I'd feel when I'm in my 30s and up but I do know that by then, together with a fulfilling career, I'd like to draw a line to build a family, too.
5.
and
. Because they've built a handy guide for women everywhere with their website, The Everygirl. I love their Career features so much that it's a blueprint of my very own features. Whenever I feel like I want to walk away from what I'm doing, I turn to their site and read everything under Career and return an inspired woman. On top of TEG, I backread both the girls' blogs and spend insane hours being inspired with the things they've achieved. They even make me want to move to Chicago sometimes.
*All images belong to respective owners.
"Who you listen to dictates your future," says my pastor.
What about you, who's your role model? xx