Say Yes To Being You

It's been a couple of months since artist Meghan Trainor released the song "All About That Bass". Pretty much, she's singing about how she's happy how she is and doesn't want to be a stick figure, and shouldn't have to be a stick figure to be happy.

It got me thinking that we really need more artists like this in our world.

A world where magazines literally have to have "No photoshop" stamps on their pages so that we know that the girls that we're seeing actually look like that in real life.

A world where size 0 (probably about an Australian 4) is fast becoming "too fat" and size 4 and up is just obscene.

Well you know what? That world is ridiculous and society needs to take a step back.

We all know that the media is a huge part of the problem, and, as an aspiring journalist, I am hoping that I will never contribute to body bashing.

Women all over the world, myself included at times, have looked in the mirror countless times and measured our waists, wondering what it would take to get thinner and achieve the seemingly untaintable 'perfection' thrust at us every day by the internet, TV and magazines.

But you know what girls? It is unatainable. We literally all have different genes, and for some of us, it won't be possible to be a 6 foot model with a 21 inch waist and thigh gap. If you are, then awesome! If you're not, awesome! Everyone is different and that's perfectly okay. Meghan Trainor sings in the song "No I won't be no stick figure silicon Barbie doll, so if that's what you're into then go ahead and move along".

I'm glad that someone's got the right idea. I mean, we've had a couple of amazing female role models (think more along the lines of Beyonce than the Kardashians), but guys are also taught to expect an unrealistic version of girls through their magazines, TV and internet.

Who cares though?

Life should be about more than just looks. We've heard it a million times before - "you need to get a guy to fall in love with your personality and your looks".

I've definitely been guilty of the staring into the mirror and googling fad diets to find out if they actually work. However, recently I've realised that I don't need to and I really need to stop. I should be happy with how I am, and as long as I stay healthy and look good enough to impress myself, that's all there is to it.

It's songs like "All About That Bass" that we need more of.

Instead of hashtags like #thinspo, let's use hashtags like #fitspo. Instead of thinking that we should eat less, think that we should eat more of foods which will make us feel good about ourselves, and I don't mean chocolate. Think foods like fruits, veggies and superfoods.

One of the lyrics is "every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top" and I think that more girls need to realise this. We only live once, and we may as well not spend our lives trying to live in an unachievable photoshopped world.

Let's just live in the real world, where everyone is different and perfect in their own way.

It's December... which means Christmas!

What. What happened to the rest of my year?

I'm sitting here trying to remember what happened to all of the months in between January and December this year. Racking my brains furiously isn't working at all, and I've finally come to the conclusion that I must have some sort of Amnesia.

Because it's December, and we all know what that means.

Welcome to the month of way too much food, holiday road rage and Christmas shopping. It's finally the festive season!

Don't take this as me being a Grinch! No! Take this as well-meaning advice with only the best of intentions! Let's face it, as good as the holiday season is, there are always those little things to look out for and avoid.

Bad drivers are notoriously bad at this time. I don't know what it is about this time of the year. Blame something in the air or water or food. But drivers seem to lose the ability to drive properly and it becomes a time where indicators, speed limits, road rules and common curtesy seem to be optional.

I'm not saying that every driver loses their cool at this time of the year, nor am I saying that I am perfect. However, I am saying that this holiday season, it'd be nice if we checked ourselves and didn't overreact to tiny, insignificant things. If we make it home safe at the end of the day, that's the main thing.

In order to make it home safe, you've got to survive a shopping centre at Christmas. If you're like me, and often leave your Christmas shopping until the last minute, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

Crazy and frazzled mothers with prams, rude business people who talk on the phone whilst surreptitiously pushing in front of you in the line and screaming kids all make for those joyous and fun-filled shopping trips at Christmas time. To avoid this scenario though, there is a quick-fix solution!

Ready?

Don't leave you Christmas shopping until the week before Christmas. That is a week when good driving is especially optional, parking is impossible and you're huddled like penguins beside the checkouts in what kind of is, but isn't really, a queue. This a week when, if you must go shopping, you shouldn't go to browse. You should be like a lion spotting a gazelle on the Serengeti.  You should have your eye on the prize and not stop for anything else. Your trips to overcrowded shopping centres with pretend 'Christmas' sales during this week should consist of you going in, paying and leaving. If you choose to skip the second step, that's illegal and you will probably get caught.

So Christmas Day. Relatives and food. It's up to you with how you deal with relatives, but all I can say about food is just enjoy yourself. Christmas comes once a year, so don't stress about your diet, alcohol consumption or wasteline. It's one day, I'm sure it'll be fine!

All in all, remember to stay calm and have a good Christmas! It'll be over in no time (until next year!)

Ten Things to Know About Moving Out of Home

The world is a big scary place, so here is a list of ten things to know about moving out of home.
(This list depends partially on the kindness and generosity of your parents, so bare that in mind!)

1. When you parents ask you if you are running low on anything, always say yes.
At first, it may seem 'cool' or 'AWESOME' to be able to walk/drive/take public transport by yourself to the store and buy shampoo and conditioner. Or toothpaste. But trust me, that stuff is expensive. And when you're on a limited student budget, the last thing you want to be doing is wasting your money on necessities. Why would you do that when there's partying to be done?! So if your parents are there, right in front of you, offering to buy you things. Don't hesitate. Don't feel bad. Just accept their generosity!

2. Never do laundry until there is no other option.
I don't mean turning your underwear inside out to wear it again (guys, we're looking at you!). No, I mean run yourself down to your last outfit, pair of underwear and socks and then do washing. If you're that stuck, I guess you could wear a dressing gown to the laundry and then get dressed in clean-yet-soaking-wet clothes. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

3. It is possible to survive on two-minute noodles and Mi Goreng.
Don't listen to your parents. Sometimes, they're wrong. Not often, but sometimes! See the thing is, if you're on a student budget and either 1) You can't cook or 2) The food provided by your college/Halls of Residence is terrible, then sometimes there is literally no other option. But you will get sick of noodles. If this results, switch to Oreos. It never fails.

4. You don't have to clean your room if you don't want to.
But bare in mind that if you want to have people over, this might be the best way to impress. Living away from home means that there are no parents to tell you when your room needs cleaned, so you're absolutely more than welcome to live in a pigsty. Welcome to university life!

5. You will never go to bed before 12am.
It's extremely unlikely. This is the situation that happens to me every, single night. At 9pm I look at the clock. 'It's still too early,' I say to myself. Five lives later in Candy Crush and after couple of episodes of the TV show of the week, it's suddenly 1am. Oh well, better go on Twitter.
The point of this is that apparently we need to be responsible adults and go to bed when we feel tired. YOLO!

6. It is possible to party every night of the week.
I just don't recommend it. Or condone it. It's just a fact. It is possible, just you need to limit yourself. Also, if you are going to do it...don't tell your parents!

7. You need to exercise.
Living away from home can cause you to put on weight for a number of reasons: your diet, alcohol and stress, just to name a few. And so, if you thought you were limitless and had an awesome metabolism in high school, don't rely on it when you start living off noodles and partying every week. Take up a sport or go running or swimming or be creative with your own ways to exercise!

8. Make lists of things you need to do.
Even better, invest in a calender or make your own. I guarantee that without your parents around to remind you, you'll forget about important events and happenings!

9. Your parents will always love you no matter what.
Well, mine will. I hope yours will too. Make sure to phone them, Facebook them or visit them. Because I can guarantee that they miss you a lot.

10. Remember to study.
Living away from home means that there is noone to nag you to study when you have exams coming up. It's up to you. And so, instead of studying right now (at 12:04am in the morning), I am blogging. It's obviously not the sensible thing to do. Mum...Dad...can you tell me to study please?!

I want to be a Disney Princess!

Tonight, in the midst of my procrasti-Facebooking, my sister messaged me.
'You have Disney Princess eyes,' she said. She went on to link me to a picture of myself and said 'You're a Disney Princess.'

Now, isn't is every little girls' dream to be a Disney Princess? I was quite happy to accept the compliment, but it got me thinking...would life as a Disney princess really be that amazing?

When I asked my sister who she would be, she replied forlornly 'I kinda wanted to be Pocahontas, but that didn't work out.'
Why?
'Because she's tanned and Pocahontas-y,' said my sister, the palest person in Australia.

But me? As a self-proclaimed (though admittedly fake) blonde, I think the Disney princess I would most like to be would be Rapunzel. Not the whole 'locked up in a tower' bit, but the strong, independent women bit.

Think about it. This girl lives by herself and fends for herself. Then one day, she decides to venture into the unknown, very scared but still willing. Isn't that what life is all about? To try new things and to venture outside your comfort zone?

However that isn't the only reason that I'd like to be a Disney princess! No way.

Who doesn't want to be rich and famous? To be in control of a kingdom and talk to animals? To be looked after by fairy godmothers and know that you're always going to meet Prince Charming?

All of these things sound too good to be true, and it's unfortunately also true that they are too good to be true. It's unlikely that you're going to marry a prince. Talking to animals in real life will only get you landed in a mental asylum. And don't even get me started on fairy godmothers! But I guess your grandma's baking is just about the next best thing to help you recover from a broken heart when you're trying to get over that guy who wasn't actually Prince Charming.

As much as real life can suck though, it does have its virtues. It's highly unlikely that you have a wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters who will destroy your dress before a ball. And wicked witches with poisoned apples only exist in fairytales, right?

Plus, there's the satisfaction of knowing that women in real life have the opportunity to go to university and be successful career women. This is unlike a Disney princess, whose only role, it seems, is to be a caring and gentle wife, mother and Queen. This is, of course, with the exception of Mulan.

I don't agree completely with the Disney stereotype of the women only having one role. Most of the Disney princesses could be soooo much more if they were just given the chance!

So yes, I'd like to be a Disney Princess, but probably not forever. I'd love to try it out though. Pick me Disney!

But to see a hilarious song about life after Disney for some of the Princesses, check out this song by youtuber Paint (aka Jon Cozart):

I Hate Ticket Scalpers

Thank you Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Thank you for proving, once again, that you do care. You care about recycling old clothes, you care about gay marriage...and now, you're taking a stand on ticket scalping.

Because this annoys me.

How is it fair for companies to go onto the websites and nabs scores of tickets, with the sole purpose of selling them at an exorbitantly higher face value than what they were originally worth? The short answer: It's not.

Ticket Scalping is ILLEGAL. In Australia, the states and territories have laws to prevent illegal acquisition and resale of tickets for the sole purposes of making money. This is definitely fair.

If you've sat on the Ticketek website hitting refresh for the twenty minutes leading up to a ticket release, you know how it feels. You know how much is at stake; how much depends upon how fast you can click buttons and enter your credit card details. However there are those that don't pay by the rules. Instead of buying tickets for their own enjoyment, they buy them to make a profit.

In Australia, these tickets often end up on sites like ViaGoGo or EBay or Gumtree. For example, Imagine Dragons are playing in a few states in October. Sold out Australia wide, tickets are available for up to $160 per ticket. And do you know how much they were originally? $66 (correct price from OzTix for the Brisbane Show).

$66. That's basically $100 profit.

So for all of those kids who are relying on their parents' credit cards, or waiting patiently for their parents to get home from work so that they can buy tickets, they often can't because of ticket scalpers and their greed for profit.

In 2011, One Direction played a limited number of shows in Australia. From my memory, because they were just gathering momentum, tickets were about $60. One was being sold on EBay for $4000.

Four. Thousand. Dollars. For one ticket. It's crazy.

So whatever you do, don't let the ticket scalpers win. Just wait for the band to come back to Australia, try to win tickets or buy them from a reputable source.

And to all those ticket scalpers:

Find a real profession. You'll only get caught.

Social Media is Ruining My Life!

We're stuck in that era. Where technology is the only way to keep up with the new trends that only seem to originate on social media. Do we like it? Do we not?

So here's what happened today.

So I finally did it. I took the leap today and spent my time signing up for both Pinterest AND Tumblr. It's sad, right?

I know I swore that I'd never get Tumblr, but please don't judge me. We must work through this together. It will require effort on both out parts to help me out of this 'social media crisis'.

But maybe I don't want help?

In my opinion, in the few hours I've spent on both of them so far...they're actually fun. I stand corrected. However, signing up for Tumblr did make me somewhat embarrassed. I now feel like a tween. I don't want to be one of those twelve year old girls who posts about One Direction and Justin Bieber. No, I refuse to do that. Instead, and I believe somewhat better, I will post inspiring pictures and cute quotes.

I think that's better?

On the other hand, Pinterest is actually really engaging! I plan to use it to find good recipes, places to travel to and other amazing fashion things. In a way, it feels like the Tumblr for adults.

So we will see how these social media sites go. I figured that since I want to be a journalist, I should maybe try out all of them just for a while so that I can at least say I know how to use them. However, I said that same thing about Twitter and over 600 tweets later I'm still using it.

Social media is the present and it's here to stay. Whether we like it or not, it's only going to get more prominent in our lives. We can either embrace it or shun it, but whatever we choose to do, we at least need to keep track of it. It's the conversation topic of the twenty-first century.

What do you think?

Look for the good in people!

With all of the negative stories floating around at the moment regarding bombs and politics, it's often easy to forget that there are genuinely good people out these in the world. Over the past few weeks, the Twitterverse has turned over, in particular, four amazing stories of kindness and compassion which I want to share with you.

1. Dairy Queen.

A manager of a Dairy Queen store in the USA saw a blind customer drop a $20 note. A 50-60 year old woman reached down and picked it up, however, instead of giving it back to the blind man, placed it in her purse as he hadn't realised that he'd dropped it. The manager asked the lady to give it back or please leave the store. She claimed that she had dropped it and left. The manager then went over to the blind man and said this:

'Sir, on behalf of Dairy Queen I would like to give you the $20 bill that you happened to drop on the ground as you walked away from the counter. I realize that this is not the $20 bill you dropped, because the older woman stole it but it does still have the same face value.'

The manager gave the $20 out of his own wallet. A customer was so in awe that they wrote to central management, the good deed went viral, and the manager will be rewarded!

2.  Diamond ring.

A homeless man returned a diamond ring to a couple after it was accidentally dropped into his cup. Despite getting the ring priced by a jeweler at $4000, he managed to find the owners of the ring. In return, the family started a fundraiser for him, raising over $190 000. He now has a house and a car, and reunited with his family!

3. Money in backpack.

A homeless man from Boston found a backpack containing almost $45 000 worth of cash and travelers cheques. Another man started an online fundraser which has since raised $135 910!

4. Lottery Ticket.

Finally, a man in Spain found a winning lotto ticket. He didn't claim it for himself because he wanted a clear conscience, however the good news is that if the authorities fail to locate the rightful owner, the money will go to the finder!

So whenever you feel like noone in the world ever does anything good, just think of these stories. Just because these are the ones which people noticed, don't forget that there are millions more that go unnoticed but still affect people in amazing ways. So remember...PAY IT FORWARD!

Blurred Lines...I don't think so!

Law students from Auckland, New Zealand have stood up for women's rights by way of a parody of Robin Thicke's hit song: Blurred Lines. 'Defined Lines' is the feminist approach to Thicke's catchy song, and I definitely think that the lyrics are much improved!

The Best Quote in the World!

'Think Different'...a campaign started by Apple in on the 28th of September, 1997 that spawned a worldwide movement, not only in buying Apple products, but also, in the most literal sense of the phrase- thinking differently.

Take me back to the twenties?

But is that really such a good idea?

"New York, 1922. The tempo of the city had changed sharply. The buildings were higher, the parties were bigger. The morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper." - The Great Gatsby (2013)

Gatsby was released earlier this year, a brand new rendition of an old film and an even older book. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, it made girls around the world envious of the fashion, the parties, and the way boys looked. For example, instead of pants hanging down around their ankles, exposing boxer shorts, think well-pressed suits with perfectly trimmed facial hair and slicked hair.

And then the girls. Flapper dresses, fancy cocktails and rich men. The areas of East and West Egg appealed to all of us. But as my friends and I gushed over all of the splendour of the most recent Gatsby film, we had to stop and wonder...Was it really a good life for the women of the twenties? Are the movies telling it like it is, or did the glitz and glamour gloss over the fact that these women might have lived their lives as male possessions? Would we, as girls in the twenty-first century, enjoy living a life possibly dominated and dictated by the male gender?

Coffee Shop Culture

On the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia, the coffee shop culture is changing. The reigning period of giants like Starbucks and Gloria Jeans is coming to an end, instead being replaced by unique and individually owned artistic coffee hotspots. Sitting here in The Birds and the Beans in Buderim, I’m writing this new piece. I aim to inspire coffee lovers everywhere to escape from the norm, to rid yourselves of coffee conglomerates and focus on getting back to the personal aspect of coffee. The coffee shop culture that we all love, but often forget about when faced by the bright lights of the Starbucks signs on Every. Single. Street. Corner. On this entire planet!

Look for the Magic in Life!

Sometimes, life is just about what you make of it. Whether it be good or bad, it all depends on the way that you see it. For example, the other day I went to visit Victoria in Canada. And I saw the building that is currently on the left of your screen. 

During the day, it looks pretty, right? I mean, it's the parliament building in a fairly old city, so of course it's built with gorgeous infrastructure and building is something that would look at during the day, take a couple of photos and then walk off.

But at night, this building is a whole different story. It was just by chance that I got the chance to see this building at night. My friend had lost his glasses at the beach nearby, so we drove back to the city at night to find them. Luckily we did, but as we were driving home, I saw the next picture. Like seriously, look at this building at night! It looks like a fairytale castle!

And so it got me wondering. What else am I missing out on? What other things might I see as completely normal, but others might see as a work of art?

And in some ways, that's what I absolutely love about social media sites like Instagram! It brings out the best images from life and putting filters helps to increase the magic.

And who doesn't want a bit more magic in their life? I absolutely love browsing my news feed for those photos that just give you an absolute buzz and make me realise that everything in the world isn't all bad, despite it sometimes seeming like it! And so, this week, I encourage you to look for magic in your life. It is everywhere, and sometimes you just need to open your mind more in order to see it. I did, and I got some of the best photographs on my phone camera that I've ever taken!

(Isn't it always the way! You don't take your camera and suddenly there's the perfect opportunity for pictures!?)

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Things Change

Our old house, with my dad on the roof!

So this blog is about my childhood, and how things change.

Don't stress, PROCRASTINATE!

I wish Time Turners actually existed!

It's almost that time of the year...exams. Whether it's university finals or high school end of the semester exams, I understand how stressful they can be! So let's look at some stress relief techniques (probably mainly for girls) that might help you to get through your exams...without using Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Blogspot or Tumblr or Pinterest or any of the other types of social media available. Please don't even mention MySpace, that was soooo 2008!

You Only Live Once

I think that one of my favourite quotes at the moment is: 'You only live once, but if you do it right, once it enough.' To me, this quote is so perfect in that it sums up everything you need to know about life. Yeah, you only get one shot, but there's nothing to stop you from making the best of that one shot. Coming across that quote while wasting my time on the internet got me thinking about other inspirational quotes or just altogether cute quotes that might bright your day! So here we go :)

It's just those little things!

The little things that make you happy. It might be a rainy day. Or a sunny day. Or a snow day. It might be seeing muffins rise in the oven, or watching a family ride their bikes together. But whatever it is, when something happens, it immediately makes your day better!


And so, today, I'm not going to write a post about Barbies or Burgers. I'm going to write about what makes me happy. Feel free to comment what makes you happy if you want to! :)