At the surface, my life seems great. Everywhere I go there are men lining up to compliment me and women pretending not to hate me. I have everything I could ever ask for — the perfect boyfriend, the house in the Hills, and a hit web series where I give quirky makeup tutorials. My life is otherwise perfect except for one thing: I have more validation than I know what to do with.
Imagine what it’s like to wake up in the morning and be bombarded with compliments. “Kelli you’re so beautiful,” “Kelli, you’re a sex goddess,” “Kelli, you’re everything that I could ever ask for in a woman; you remind me of my mother, but in like a sexy, faceable way.” It’s one thing to be perfect, but it’s another thing for everyone in the world to be as aware of it as me.
I can’t even post a picture on Instagram or Facebook without getting at least 1500 likes. That’s 1500 individual people telling me something I already know: I’m amazing. And they’re right. But I don’t need to constantly hear about it – I need some space and privacy to live my life. Please, spend your time validating somebody less fortunate than me.
Living life as a model of feminine perfection comes with its responsibilities. I have a coworker named Susie, and by the looks of her, she’s probably never received a compliment in her life (she rocks a weird ginger pixie cut). Rather than let her live her life devoid of validation, I send her some of the wonderful things people write to me via text, email, and social media. It’s my way of paying it forward. I could silently take the praise and validation like a pretty, wounded veteran, but that’s just not me. I want to make the world a brighter place. I know what I’m doing for Susie means something. She never responds, but deep down, I know I’ve made a difference.
And so with that I say that, I am so bombarded with validation that I have little idea how to reconcile the fact that everyone loves me this much. My cup overfloweth. I wish I could live just one day without it, to know what it’s like to be normal, but I’ll just never have that luxury.
