Do you know what’s getting old? The glamorisation and idolisation of female celebrities when they act like humans and um, do human things. Vanessa Hudgens leaves the house bare faced in a tracksuit and twitter crowns her an inspiration to us all. The bravery! Jennifer Lawrence completely decks it at the Oscars and she is suddenly a martyr, the ambassador of not being ‘perfect’. The revelation! Cara Delevingne posts a photo with a Big Mac and almost instantly she is on a frivolous 
protest against the media’s pre conceived idea of beauty enforced upon young girls and a paragon of body acceptance. Yes, the airbrushed model!
Now, I don’t mean to brag but since the exposure that this is all it takes to become a role model, I’ve decided to drop the bombshell that these acts of bravery and fights for justice are ones I have dedicated my whole life to. I had my first Big Mac age three so I guess you could say I’m practically a child prodigy. I know it might be hard to believe, but if you came round to my house after a day at college I’ll be in a man size Umbro sweater, having consumed my bodyweight in Aldi’s take on Jaffa Cakes (I know, Aldi, I’m so down to earth right?). As for accidents, my life is a series of me walking in to automatic doors and once, I even fell over… on gravel.
Maybe I’m weird, a blip or an anomaly, but I don’t want to idolise someone for being normal. Or even worse, telling me it’s okay to be normal? The whole thing seems laughable. I understand that some young people need this kind of assurance in a society that relentlessly pressures us all to meet a pre meditated idea of beauty. Personally, though, I think that realising it is okay to eat a steak (more than okay, like one of the best things ever) and order whatever the hell you want, should be something you do for yourself and not because Beyoncé says it’s alright. You shouldn’t need a ‘pretty’ girl to lay down the law for what is acceptable and I for one can’t help but wonder if the female social media population would have deified such images and quotes had they come from a larger lady.
The most frustrating thing out of all this pizza-eating-anti-thigh-photoshopping nonsense is that these trivial, petty acts have blinded us from girls with bigger ambitions than eating a burger – girls worthy of our adoration and aspiration. Take Malala Yousafzai for example – a Pakistani school girl smashing through glass ceilings (pretty double glazed glass ceilings may I add) and fighting for girls’ rights for education. When the Taliban put a bullet in her forehead for pursuing her beliefs she refused to be silent and when they issued death threats she only spoke louder, claiming “Extremists have shown what frightens them the most: a girl with a book”.
Standing as a winner of The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 you can’t help but feel the Taliban really did shoot the wrong girl in the head. With wisdom, bravery and an abundance of kindness way beyond her years, she’s someone I aspire to be, well aware that I will fall short every time… so where are all her twitter fan accounts, tumblr gifs and endlessly retweeted quotations?