The Fab Gal

Labels: attention, celebrity gossip, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens, drama, fab gal, girls, media, respect

So we've all known them. Maybe they're not as scary as The Plastics, but you heard they made a girl cry. And everybody talks about them, but not to their face - hello, they're the mean girls! You're pretty sure they don't have a nice bone in their body.

Believe me, I've known plenty of them. Those girls always scare me - I always feel like less around them. But when I was at camp this summer, I saw things from a different perspective. Since all of us were around each other 24/7, we established our opinions of the other campers, fair or not, pretty quickly. There were a few girls that pretty much got pegged as mean girls. Neither of them was in my close circle, but I got to know them both well enough to know that was not true at all. The first one, we'll call J, came off a little hard - but she was actually a really considerate person, and she always came to me for a second fashion opinion. The other one, also J, actually - everyone thought she had a bad attitude, but the truth is, she was just outspoken and opinionated, and was hilarious and really nice underneath all that.

So it made me kinda sad when I heard people saying bad things about these two, because they weren't any more flawed than anyone else there. It made me think twice about some of the people, the mean girls, that I had been so intimidated by before. Certainly, there are some girls that do lash out and do really nasty stuff to bring other girls down, for no apparent reason. But maybe sometimes we put people in their position before we have really given them a chance. It's just like any other stereotype - the smart girl, or the shy girl, or whatever. It doesn't give anyone the chance to see past that title, however true or untrue it might be.

I'm not saying you need to be best friends with the "mean girls" at your school, and if someone is treating you badly, you definitely should not take it. But next time you start to feel intimidated or talk about someone behind their back, think if you really know who this person is. You might be surprised to know that they really aren't a mean girl at all.

xoxo

The Fab Gal

PS - I have been updating The Fab Gal Myspace, and the blog there is available for you to leave comments about the site. Check it out!

Labels: celebrity gossip, fab gal, friends, girls, Labels, Mean Girls, teens

Hey Fab Gals!

So I try my best to stay aways from the celebrity gossip scene, because I know how nasty and (mostly) untrue it is. But there was one recent piece that caught my attention: the Miley Cyrus photos. There was the infamous Vogue shoot, but even before that there were some silly pictures of her and her friends at a slumber party. After the first set, people labeled her as gross, inappropriate, and a lesbian. Then after the Vogue pics, outrage ensued – and people were calling to have her kicked of Hannah Montana.

What this made me wonder is this: Why are we so angry? Sure, over the past year, Miley has become a role model for millions of young girls, and I think for the most part she has been a stellar one. But she also a 15 year-old, a living, breathing teenage girl. She won’t get it right all the time. But we put celebrities at this super-high level, like they’re our Barbie dolls, or the cool kids we’ll never be. Then when they fall down, it’s hard to remember that they really aren’t part of a different world. Maybe it’s jealousy, maybe it’s our expectations for ourselves, whatever – but it’s not fair.

Then when parents started calling for her to be removed from her own show, I was stunned. Of course, they were worried about what kind of example she was setting for their daughters, but what message would it send if they kicked her off? That if you mess up, that’s it – no second chances? I’ll be perfectly honest: I know that somewhere, in the messy corners of my closet, that I too have some silly, goofy photos from slumber parties past that yea, okay, I would be really embarrassed if anyone saw. But that doesn’t make me a bad girl, and I would like to think that no one would respect me any less if they got into the wrong hands.

Fab Gals are bound to mess up, but they know that it’s all about handling your mistakes with style and class. Miley  proved her Fab Gal status – she apologized to whomever she offended, learned her lesson, and moved on. Case closed.

What do you think Fab Gal, do we put too much pressure on young celebs? How would you want to be treated if you were in Miley’s position? How do you handle your slip-ups?

Let me know what you think FGs, and check back tomorrow for the countdown of my top 10 fave Fab Gals.

xoxo

The Fab Gal

P.S. - Below is a video of the Miley & Mandy show, Miley Cyrus’s Youtube web show with her BFF. Totally unrelated, but it’s fun to see what two Fab Gals will do with a camera…

Labels: celebrity gossip, fab gal, media, Miley Cyrus