Olim

April 10th

The real truth about self-employment - part 2!

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Hey! Welcome to the 41st (!) instalment of the Olim Love Letters - a weekly newsletter written by me, Eloise. Here, we talk about connection, copy, Really Weird Childhood Stories™, and the odd linguistic snippet thrown in for good measure.

There are lots of things that would benefit from reinvention, Reader.

School dinners. Most of the world’s economy. The idea that matcha is appealing*.

*It’s not. Fight me.

But you, dear friend, are not one of them.

The world wants you to think that you are flawed. Social media has commodified your inherent human dignity.

Influencers are literally positioned to make you want to change yourself: your clothes, your home, your hobbies (I swear it was the TikTok girlies that made reformer pilates A Thing, don’t get me started on the Stanley water bottles either #BigDumbCup).

Not convinced?
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Here’s a mere scraping of some of the videos YouTube’s recommended me today.

• i changed my life in 6 months & you can too
• How To Become UNRECOGNIZABLE In 90 Days: Rebrand Your Identity, Build Micro Habits & Glow Up Fast
• 7 Habits of Top 1% Women
• What I Eat In A Day + My Workout | easy, quick recipes I eat to stay happy + healthy
• The Way You Dress Is Ruining Your Life (It's Science)

*faints*

How are we supposed to develop, maintain, or protect healthy self-image when The Internet is basically ramming its fist down our throats and demanding our confidence as lunch money?!

You might’ve heard me rant about all of this before, of course, Reader

You contain multitudes! Social media is robbing us of joy! We’re frittering our time chasing arbitrary metrics of enoughness, sad that we’re not there yet.

This is hard, as a gold-star chasing, rampant overachiever, to accept. I want to arrive. I want to be there.

Do I know where there is? Absofeckinglutely not. Not a clue. Not one single sausage.

But that doesn’t stop me from feeling incompetent, or failed for not making “it” yet.

I know I can’t be the only person who struggles with this, but I am also the only person who can change this for myself.

If social media is the root cause of the problem (comparison is the thief of joy, and social platforms have basically made comparison a compulsion), then I probably need to put my money where my mouth is.

I’m quitting Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for good. The fact that I’m nervous about it tells me everything.

So send me courage, Reader. And I’ll report back from the other side.

Thank you for being here. Your very human, genuine presence feels like cosy socks just off the radiator. Tangible, comforting: a joy.

Big love,

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Eloise x