I read an article in Cosmopolitan** magazine today about Demi Lovato.
The story goes something like this: Girl is born. Girl is f-ed up from kindergarten, on. Girl worships Barney and Shirley Temple. Girl is suicidal, depressed, bulimic, etc. Girl becomes cutter. Girl "overcomes obstacles" to become international pop music superstar.
Cosmo is making Lovato out to be a ginormic badass bombshell role model, and it's all I can do not to scream "WTF" at the pages. Since when do parents want their little girls idolizing someone who spent most of her life wanting to kill herself, cutting into her skin as a form of "therapy", binging and purging, and then suddenly thrust into the spotlight of Hollywood to succumb to the pressure of celebrity?
SHE EVEN SAYS in the article, and I quote: "I just had the idea in my head that I was on the Disney Channel, so somehow I had to prove that I was a badass. So on the weekends, I'd go crazy. There were moments when I was at parties and would laugh, like, 'Yeah, I'm such a role model.' Looking back, how disrespectful to the people who you are a role model to and the parents who are letting their children trust you."
So now here she is scampering around New York being photographed in skanky clothes (though, it must be said, most are not NEARLY as bad as what I've seen in this rag before) and talking about the tattoos she had done to cover up her scars. So, the moral of the story is, don't worry, if you have mental health issues and take a razor blade to your skin, you can just go get needled to cover up the damage and then become a rock star. Realistic, indeed.
I'm just saying, if I had a daughter, I'd be damned if this was the kind of person I'd let her follow and look up to. Which IS NOT saying that I condemn this girl for overcoming her issues. Good for her, in all seriousness. Nobody deserves to be bullied or have self-mutilation issues or eating disorders. But to hammer into the heads of little girls everywhere that if you get past your personal shit, you can become a superstar? Seriously?
I hate Hollywood sometimes. No, that's a lie. I hate it pretty much all the time.
**DISCLAIMER: Cosmo is 100% pure, retarded trash. The articles are over-edited to the point where they aren't even real anymore (re: "Confessions"). It focuses strictly on young women living in big cities working high-end jobs and assumes that its readers can afford outrageously priced beauty products and clothing (the concentration of ads is sickening). It promotes one-night stands and full-scale slutdom and plays up the single-girl party life. I am the first to admit that Cosmo is a giant waste of media space. That said, it's my guilty pleasure. Judge away.
