Worship Yourself, Not Celebrities

Lately, it seems like a lot more celebrities and influencers (who are essentially celebrities) are behaving badly. More than behaving badly, they are scamming, promoting bad products and committing the most egregious, violent crimes. While they are doing this, they want us to continue to consume anything that they put out there, without any real regard for our wallets! If ever there was a time to divest from the influence of celebrity culture, that time would be now.

I know this is not something you want to hear. And I get it. I have my faves and they can do no wrong in my mind. Until they do! And they always do. Celebrity culture is alluring and it is fascinating. Transformative art, bright lights, the best style, flyest homes, private jets, the fanciest restaurants – they are on the scene. And they make it look so fun and effortless. Unfortunately, there is a very dark side to celebrity culture. The curtain has been lifted and we are seeing some very ugly, disturbing truths.

I don’t want to make a big conspiracy theory about the downfall of Hollywood, the music industry, fashion, influencers and the like. There are plenty of articles, think pieces, commentary and gossip platforms that do the heavy lifting on many of these topics. But I will say this: celebrities are human and therefore imperfect people. And therefore, we shouldn’t hold them in higher regard than we hold ourselves.

So many of the actors, singers, designers and others are phenomenally talented. It is inspiring. We want to be that talented or to have that type of impact on the lives of others. We want to leave a legacy and many of these celebrities are the blueprint. And the media does a great job of crafting a narrative of the amazing lives that our favorite celebrities live. We want to be them. We want that lifestyle. And we are willing to do what it takes to “make it” because of what they tell us about their carefully manufactured lives. And somehow, we can’t achieve those levels of success by following the blueprint that they laid out for us. And then we look at our regular degular lives and think that we are the ones doing something wrong. We are not doing anything wrong.

These celebrities are a brand and a business. There job is to keep you coming back for more. Back in the day (pre-social media), we used to only see celebrities on TV or movies, at concerts, in magazines or interviews, etc. Every now and then, we’d hear about a crime, scandal or controversy about a celebrity IF they were famous enough to grab the headlines. But now, it is a totally different story. From A-listers to Z-listers, we now have access to them 24/7! Some celebrities are smart enough and rich enough to still carefully script a life worth admiring. Even with those celebrities, we are starting to see the cracks. And it is very disappointing, though not surprising.

The other thing that is happening is that because we have unfettered access to the lives of these celebrities, we are seeing just how out-of-touch they really are. They look down on their fans, argue with their fans or sell pricey or questionable products that most of their fans cannot afford. It is troublesome.

It is especially troublesome after the pandemic because it seems like we’ve all felt the pain! Although we are not in a recession, we are still feeling the strain of inflation. The tech boom is essentially over, and thousands of tech workers are getting laid off. Wages are stagnant and have not really kept up with the rate of inflation. We have a legitimate migrant and humanitarian crisis that no one has a clear solution for. Owning a home seems impossible to many due to a housing shortage, high cost of living and other factors that impact the real estate market. There are wars happening in other parts of the world that are sparking fear of another world war. We are all collectively struggling, and our mental health has been impacted.

This all sounds very somber, yet I have so much hope and optimism. I think we can admire a celebrity or other highly influential person for their talent. We cannot, however, look to them as the blueprint. You are the blueprint. You are worth the investment in yourself to figure out a life that makes sense for you. And maybe you will become famous! Just be the type of influential figure that understands their influence and does what they can to make the world a little bit better for not just themselves, but for everyone!

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