#31
Ambition and encouraged uniqueness that comes with innocence
Hey hottttties <3 My brain has been moving slowly lately but have sat on this for a minute and needed to just dump out the thoughts. Please excuse poor writing and typos but enjoy!!
If you’ve been online recently or scanned any clickbait trend report, you know that “nostalgia” has reached the forefront of descriptive words. Whether it be used to describe marketing or something that “Gen Z craves”, nostalgia has become an umbrella term used to encapsulate the desires of many women right now. While I think the “longing for what was” definitely hits during a seemingly doomed and uncontrollable time for many, I can’t help but feel that something more is missing in this discourse. My work with researching and creating a better online sphere for the next generation of girls prompts me to spend a lot of time not only attempting to experience these things through their lens but also to really try to understand how the tween mind exists beyond what we’re told by older generations online. As I’ve said before, we’re so fixated on positioning younger generations as doomed and taken in by their exposure to technology that we forget the ambition and encouraged uniqueness that comes with innocence. We’re so concerned with how they are and can be “consumers” that we forget that the majority have an excited existence beyond the products that are pushed into their faces. We forget that they have courageous dreams to BE something not defined by the marketed consumerism they will inevitably encounter.
As a 25 year old, I think back ten years to the beautiful naiveness that was gifted to me through both the resources I was lucky enough to obtain and also having exposure to the possibility of dreaming up an existence I wanted to see for myself. Of course, as you grow up, reality hits, and life unfolds unexpectedly. But there is so much significance in remembering that most younger girls and teenagers are unapologetic in their ambitions to exist in a world of their making- where they can control the mark they leave beyond the products and trends that are ready to come to them, like vultures. They don’t dream of sameness, acting and looking in unison with everyone else. This needs to be used and remembered as we continue to shape the digital experiences that generations will inevitably face. How can we use technology for the better? And as we continue to move into a world where online and offline are blurred, this includes every aspect of engagement.
Love you guys, hopefully be back soon with a sharper working mind and spirit!