“Try hard”

I took this screenshot a while ago because it made me mad. Not because I believe it’s true. Maybe it is true, but why the hell does it even matter?

My beef is with why it’s such a horrible thing for women to age. No one is writing articles in magazines about men over 45 who wear their hair long.

Honestly magazines and media like this have been telling me what’s wrong with my face and body and life since I turned 11. The idea that nearly 40 years later, I’m still expected to follow these “guidelines” is bananas.

It’s also interesting to me that I spent a day in a room of mostly women talking about women’s health research, which 1) gave me hope because of all the brilliant women working in this space but 2) made me mad because entire industries spend billions just to make me feel terrible about my outward appearance while health science for women remains massively understudied and underfunded.