A Level myth busters

Okay, so results day for GCSEs is tomorrow and if you're waiting on results believe me I know how nerve wracking it can be - I got very little sleep on the 21st August 2013 and it was the same with my friends, we actually stayed up playing Would You Rather on a group chat on Whatsapp (highly recommend this if you want some top notch #bantz whilst you're waiting for results day to come). So, I thought I would do a post debunking some theories about A Levels and giving my tips and advice for anyone moving onto that portion of their lives.

Check the time stamp on that tweet - literally just about a week before my GCSE results!

BS THEORY #1: 'A Levels are easier than GCSEs because you're doing fewer subjects'
This theory is probably the one that irritates me and many other A Level students alike the most - this is utter nonsense. Sure, you're doing fewer subjects and I understand at GCSEs when you're studying like 10 subjects, the prospect of doing 3-5 sounds a lot easier, but A Levels are about 50 times harder than GCSEs. You have to learn a hell of a lot of extra detail, like you know at GCSEs when learning specific detail was something you did if you really wanted the A*? Yeah, at A Levels the specific detail is bare minimum like it'll probably bring you to a C at most so already you're having to put in a lot more effort to get a C.

BS THEORY #2: 'You'll be able to do all your work and revision in your free periods so you'll have a lot more free time'
Again, this isn't true because you get so much extra work at A Levels and there's so much content  to revise, you're going to need free periods as well as time outside of school to do all the work you need to do. Don't get me wrong, you'll still have free time but you definitely won't have as free a schedule as you did at GCSEs.

BS THEORY #3: 'You have to do A Levels if you want to get into University'
I can't stress this enough, but if you don't feel like exams are your sort of thing, you do not have to do A Levels, you can do a BTEC and still get into University. There are certain courses at certain Universities that will only take A Levels and that's granted but for loads of courses they accept people with BTEC results and I know people who weren't so into exams but did amazingly on their BTEC and got unconditional offers from good Universities so please don't listen to all that crap about how A Levels are the only route into University and can we please stop with the whole 'BTECs are for stupid people' malarkey. Yes, I did A Levels but I know from other people that BTECs are still a heck of a lot of work, that's why you can get onto a University course with, for example, entry requirements of BBB at A Levels but DDM at BTEC - so if you don't feel exams are for you, please do consider a BTEC and don't let people put you off them because of the stereotypes around them, you know what kind of education is best suited for you I'm sure.

BS THEORY #4: 'You should do a Science subject because it looks good on your UCAS'
Okay, this is true in general like you should never do a subject based on the fact that it looks good on your UCAS, but I know in Science this is a particularly big problem and it's something that actually happened to me.

As you may know, I did Biology for As and hated it within the first couple of weeks. I did actually really like Biology at GCSE and our teachers made us think that the course we were doing was basically A Level (which was complete and utter rubbish anyway, we were doing Cambridge CIE iGCSE, which is done in public schools and is a heck of a lot harder than a regular GCSE) so I assumed I'd be fine at A Level, but I absolutely hated it and found no enjoyment in the course anymore, but I didn't even question dropping it before A2 because I thought that having a Science subject there would make my UCAS look better but it really wasn't worth the trouble. Firstly, I genuinely despised going into school on some days because I knew I'd have Biology (Thursdays especially because, whilst I had a half day, I had 4 periods of Biology) and this made me really down on those days. Secondly, I wouldn't concentrate much in lesson or I'd get lost because I didn't care about what we were learning and I didn't find it at all interesting for the most part (although, gonna give it some credit, I quite liked all the biology on food and diet like that was pretty interesting.) Thirdly, I basically scraped a pass in it so I barely got any UCAS points from it anyway plus Universities only look at 3 subjects generally and they pretty much disregard As entirely.

This brings me onto another point, never do a subject if you have the intention of dropping it. During the first few weeks of A Levels, I knew I either wanted to drop Biology or History but after those few weeks I was dead set on dropping Biology and I'm pretty certain it's that mentality that contributed to me not working as hard in it. Essentially what I'm trying to say is, do subjects that you love. Also, if you're only doing certain A Levels to get onto a certain Uni course and you hate those subjects, you probably won't like the Uni course so you may need to reconsider what you want to do. Furthermore, to do well in a subject you should have some sort of interest in it otherwise revision is going to be a complete task (I don't really think revision should be the most enjoyable of tasks, but if you're bored to tears revising it like I was learning about bonds and Alpha helixes and all that jazz, you're doing the wrong course).

BS THEORY #5: 'Once you've made your choices for A Levels, you're stuck with them'
There's a degree of truth in this in the sense that if you're a few months into the course, then it's probably not worth changing because you won't be able to catch up on a new course in time for the exam (the year goes by dangerously fast, be prepared) but if you change in the first few weeks, there'll probably still be places on other courses that you can change to or you can drop a subject if you're not liking it. I feel like you do get a feel for the course you're doing in the first few weeks of it, I know I definitely did (especially with Biology, but lets not go through that again) so if you don't like a course in the first few weeks, don't hesitate to ask your Head of Year about changing. They may not let you drop it in the first few weeks because it's possible after a first assessment sort of dealio you get a good grade so they can persuade you to stay on the course, but you may be able to change to a different course that you'll enjoy more.

That's all I really have to say, I hope any of you receiving GCSE results are happy with what you get, and I hope it's enough to do what you want to do next whether that be A Levels, BTEC or an Apprenticeship (I think there are more options too but these are the main ones that I'm aware of).

What are your tips for those who've just finished their GCSEs?

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Last hope for the lefties

This is probably one of the first posts I've ever done on UK politics, I've spoken about topics of social justice before and I've mentioned my hatred for the government and how sad I was with the General Election results but this is the first whole post I am dedicating entirely to UK politics, and this post goes out to the lefties - so if you're a Tory, you might want to bugger off right about now, although if you're a Tory I don't see why you're following my blog in the first place . . .

As you will probably know, the Labour Leadership election is coming and votes need to be in by September 10th. Anyone can join the Labour Party in order to be eligible for this election, and if you're a true leftie, you really should consider it because Jeremy Corbyn could be Labour's last chance to win an election ever again. People are tired of Tory lite/austerity lite, hence why the Tories have essentially won the past two elections. If the results in Scotland from the last election show us anything, it's that people want an alternative to austerity and that's exactly what Jeremy Corbyn is offering as Labour leader.

So what is Jez offering*?

1. On the economy, he wants an end to austerity, higher taxes for the rich, and protection for people on welfare. An end to austerity means protection to the public services that ordinary people, at some point or another, will depend on. The existence of austerity perpetuates this war on the poor that maintains and strengthens the patriarchy, so considering Jez is the only realistic alternative to austerity we have in this political system, that alone was enough to convince me he was the way forward.

2. On foreign policy, Jez wants to secure peace in the middle east by talking instead of invading - an approach that should regain those who became disillusioned with Labour under Blair. He's also spoken out many times on the oppression of Palestinian people and Israel's violation of international war.

3. On the EU, Jez wants to stay in but have a reform as the EU is precious especially regarding trade amongst other benefits like protection of workers, more jobs being generated, freedom for citizens to work, travel or study in any other European country, low prices of goods, a louder voice for the UK, and it aids in the development of economically deprived countries. He also outrightly disagrees with TTIP, which if it went ahead could result in the privatisation of the NHS, lower the standards of regulations on food and environmental safety (which could be pretty dodgy to say the least), give a hell of a lot more power to bankers, as well as resulting in a lot of unemployment, and it would introduce Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) which essentially means unelected transnational corporations could dictate the policies of democratically elected governments - so if I were you, I would definitely want someone opposing TTIP to be representing the Labour Party.

4. On education, he wants a national education service, and state-funded academies and free schools would be returned to local authority control as these systems divide the unions. He also wants to scrap tuition fees and he plans to do this by increasing national insurance for those who earn over £50,000 and a higher corporation tax - I don't know about you, but free or at least cheaper university sounds pretty good to me (especially since the Tories are getting rid of maintenance grants)

5. On housing, Jez wants rent controls in places such as Central London to help families on benefits pay their rent because obviously it's a lot more expensive there.

6. On defence, unlike the government, less money would be spent and Trident would be scrapped, which is a controversial issue in itself but I personally think this is a good move as it's an unnecessary, expensive deterrent - building and operating a new generation of nuclear weapons will cost the UK £97 billion, and the weapons are far too powerful for their own good. In fact, every submarine in Britain's Trident fleet carries up to 48 nuclear warheads, each of which is eight times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima**.

7. On travel, Jez wants to renationalise the railways which has a multitude of benefits. It would mean rail fares would go down, standards for rail workers would improve, customer service would improve, trains would be more likely to be on time, and the trains would be more clean and comfortable. Furthermore, railways are a natural monopoly which is bad because this means they can set any price that they choose and if it's not nationalised then its main priority is going to be profit, so this means higher prices than necessary. Secondly, a monopoly means that the business has no obligation to provide good service so they can provide inferior service and charge a high price for it because there aren't really any major competitors. There are more reasons than this why monopolies are bad, but these reasons alone are enough to show that it's vital for this natural monopoly to be nationalised. Plus, the benefit of having a state-owned railway means that any surplus, any profit, can be reinvested back into other public services, so even if you don't use the railways that often, it's still beneficial to you to have nationalised rails because other public services can be funded from any profit.

8. On energy, again Jez says he wants to renationalise energy. The reasons for this are basically the same reasons aforementioned on why monopoly is pretty bad, but essentially it's good to have nationalised commodities because any profit can be reinvested into other public services which at the end of the day benefits everyone.

If you want to sign up to the Labour Party in order to be eligible to vote in the Leadership election, you have to sign up by the 12th August at 12pm - so basically, y'all gotta hurry the heck up if you want to vote in this because time is running out. You can sign up as a member, like me and my brother did, and for us, it only cost £1 a year because we fit into the aged 14-19 bracket, or, like my parents, you can sign up as a supporter which costs as little as a £3 one off payment. There are other options for membership but you'd have to have a click around and see which one you feel would suit you most (this doesn't take long at all!) If you're a true leftie and want to see a socialist gain power of a major party, in my opinion this is the best thing you could do so sign up as quickly as you can - #JezWeCan.

Are you a member of the Labour Party?

*The basic information for Corbyn's policies was found on the BBC website 
** Source

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Her name's Caitlyn, not Bruce

I'm not sure if I've said anything or anything much on the whole gender identity situation going on with Caitlyn Jenner (if you haven't heard, she has now changed her name to Caitlyn) but I feel that there's a serious case of transphobia plaguing the internet (specifically my Twitter timeline) that needs to be addressed, yep you guessed it - you're in for a rambly social justice post.

To make this plain and simple, now that Caitlyn has changed her name from Bruce, there is no excuse for people to continue calling her Bruce. When she initially said to the world that she identified as a female, she did say that she wanted to be referred to as a him for that time, but now she has said she wanted to be referred to as she/her, and it's important to do that because failing to recognise someone's pronouns is abusive and disrespectful, essentially what you're doing is invalidating the gender identity that person identifies with and telling them you don't think that what they're feeling is real, and so you don't think it should be acknowledged. You are removing that person's right to be comfortable within themselves so that you feel more comfortable, because you're offended by them expressing how they feel. 

By refusing to call Caitlyn Caitlyn, you're ignoring the person she has identified herself to be, and if you invalidate someone's own identity, you're basically saying you don't care about them as a person, and you find their existence to be an inconvenience for you. Doesn't sound very nice, does it?

And another thing, people who are criticising her for changing her name in order to feel more like a female on the grounds that 'gender is a social construct' and we shouldn't associate names with certain genders, stop trying to belittle the problems that transgender people face. Maybe gender is a social construct, but as it's a current, prevalent part of our society, people have a right to identify as one gender and if it helps them feel more comfortable with who they are to change their name to a stereotypically female or male name, why shouldn't they have the right to that? Plus, most of the systems in place at the moment are social constructs - different types of sexualities are social constructs, different races are social constructs, even our concept of right and wrong is a social construct. 

Our ideas of gender are always changing, and I do agree that we should try and remove the stereotypes associated to certain genders because no person should feel confined to the stereotypes of their gender, but if it helps a person feel more comfortable with who they are by doing things that are stereotypically linked to one gender, why is that such a big deal? Furthermore, most of the people I've seen criticising Caitlyn for changing her name on the basis that 'gender is a social construct' are cisgender and funnily enough have stereotypically male or female names, by criticising a transgender person for changing their name so they can better identify with their gender, you're ignoring the problems faced by transgender people. It's easy for someone in a more privileged position to say 'she shouldn't have to change her name' because they haven't the faintest idea what it's like to question your gender identity, whether or not gender is a societal construct, it's something that's so prevalent in our society you can't ignore it so if changing your name makes you feel more comfortable because you associate with a gender that society has constructed, you absolutely have the right to do that.

All I'm getting at is that gender is a really confusing thing to come to terms with for a lot of people, and the amount of criticism I've seen for Caitlyn Jenner has just shown how alive transphobia is (not that I thought for a second it was dead, but it's just brought it to my attention again). If someone identifies with a certain gender, whether or not it be a societal construct, use the correct pronouns for that gender, use the name the person has for themselves whether it be the one they're born with or one they've assigned for themselves, and just be open and tolerant towards people in a less privileged position than you are. I know I have privilege in the sense that I'm cisgender, but I like to consider myself an ally to people who don't share that privilege and I think it's important to bring awareness to the issue so we can stop treating people who aren't cisgender like a taboo topic. For more information, I found this blog post really helpful so give it a read and this video from Kat Blaque who's a transgender WOC so what she says has a lot more depth than anything I could say on the issue.

What are your opinions on the matter?

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My 100th post - let's get better acquainted, shall we?

I started this here old blog in the Summer of 69 2014, and here I am at 100 posts, which I know for some people is nothing and I knew when I started writing on my first blog in 2013 that blogging was just something I really clicked with and it became a hobby pretty quickly. So, just to commemorate reaching my 100th post, I thought I'd do answer a few blogging questions which were from a tag but I picked the ones I thought would be more interesting.

1. When did you start blogging?

I technically started blogging in August 2013 when I was 16 and just about to go into sixth form. In fact, you can see my first ever blog post here. Although, I started blogging on this blog in June 2014 because I didn't feel like my old blog looked at all professional and I just wanted a fresh start, I wanted to really put more effort into my posts, take better photos, have a little more schedule, and whilst I don't think this blog looks super professional, I am quite proud of it considering I did all the HTML stuff myself and I didn't pay for a template or anything (not that there's anything wrong with that) and in comparison to my old blog, it's come a heck of a long way.

2. What encouraged you to start?

I remember I had just gotten into loads of beauty YouTubers and I realised they all had blogs and a lot of them had started from blogging. Then I saw this video by Zoella and SprinkleOfGlitter and I convinced myself I could do it. Also, I had been told by teachers before that I was quite good at writing so it was my strong point and something I enjoyed doing.

3. What was the first blog you ever actively followed?

I'm pretty certain it was Zoella which I know is the generic answer that ever blogger gives, but I'm tired of people giving Zoe slack. The fact is that she has worked to get to where she is now, whether you think she'd 'sold out to the man' or not doesn't take away the fact that she worked hard on her blog and YouTube channel and that's why she's so popular now, I have absolutely no shame in saying that Zoe's is the first blog I've ever actively followed.

4. What type of things do you blog about?
Just about everything. I would say beauty is the main thing I come back to, but more recently I am loving doing little lifestyle posts and little social justice rants, as well as writing about books and music. I always wanted my space on the internet to be just that - my space. I never wanted to feel confined to doing just one specific thing, and whilst it may mean that not all my followers will like what I'm posting, I enjoy it and I love being able to basically blog about what I want.

5. What has been your biggest revelation since beginning blogging?
You can blog about whatever the heck you want and there will always be people who will be interested in reading it. There are all sorts of people out there and there will be some people who are interested in the things you like to post, so you can basically have complete freedom in blogging and still be embraced within the community which is really comforting.

6. What do you find toughest about blogging?
Taking nice photos and trying not to go off on a tangent in my posts, I sometimes get a bit rambly and off topic.

7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
Being able to express myself and be appreciated for it, and by extension, the community. I love the Twitter chats and just being a part of the blogging community because everyone seems to be so gosh darn nice.

8. What are your blogging ambitions for 2015?
I'd quite like to get to 500 followers and generally improve my photos and writing quality, there's always room for improvement though so this is an ongoing goal.

9. Recommend five blogs for anyone reading to follow....
Dinner with Maddie
Milk Bubble Tea
Kayla Hadlington
Mermaidens
Aspiring Londoner

Who are your favourite bloggers?

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BREAKING NEWS (not) - Katie Hopkins is an arse

I think the first time I heard anything about Katie Hopkins was when she was on This Morning criticising people for naming their children Tyler or after places, and then she was called up on the fact that her child was called India. Since then, she has blown up in infamy - saying incriminating thing at every corner such as saying that fat people are fat because they're lazy. I've never really liked her at all or taken any of her opinions seriously, firstly she's a Tory which automatically puts me off, but also her opinions just seem too outrageous to be at all serious. However, her tweets regarding depression really hit  home just how ignorant she is and this needs to be addressed.

I'll give you a second to comprehend the degree of problematic this hits. Katie Hopkins is uneducated in many, many, ways but this is beyond the pale. It seems in some of these tweets that she was trying to point out that depression has been romanticised and that's not okay, that I agree with because romanticisation of mental illness is bad and it results in people who are mentally ill not being taken seriously, but she went further than that and went on to suggest that depression doesn't really exist?

According to Mayo Clinic Staff - "Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depression, major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and depression may make you feel as if life isn't worth living.

More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn't a weakness, nor is it something that you can simply "snap out" of. Depression may require long-term treatment. But don't get discouraged. Most people with depression feel better with medication, psychological counseling or both. Other treatments also may help."

So contrary to what Hopkins believes, depression isn't something you can snap out of by going for a jog. I wouldn't ever wish depression on anybody, but her complete lack of empathy for people suffering with a mental illness is astounding and vile, so it would be interseting to see if she could put herself in the shoes of someone suffering from depression and still pound out the same drivel about 'topping yourself in private'. It seems her mental capacity is so limited that she can't spare a smidge of sympathy for those suffering, it seems she can only spare a thought as far enough as it affects her day-to-day life. 

It honestly just sickens me that she can't imagine for one second how awful you have to feel to consider taking your own life, and for her to claim that this is some sort of outlet for self-obsession is utterly ridiculous. Correct me if I'm wrong, but self-obsession is narcissism, depression is a completely different subject. Depression affects people differently, but on a very very general basis it's feeling down for an extended period of time or not really feeling any strong emotions, a sort of numb sensation over a long time* so it's pretty evident that she doesn't really understand what depression is even on an entry-level basis.

It's clear that Katie Hopkins is completely uneducated on the matter, and I gave up on trying to reform her via thinking angry thoughts and tweeting about her because she's beyond help. On the plus side though, she has said she'll leave the UK if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister, so I know who I'm voting for.

What are your opinions on Katie Hopkins?

*I'm speaking from personal experience, what I've heard from friends, seen online and studied in school, but if you feel I'm out of order with this very general description please feel free to correct me!!

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Why it's okay for people to be sad about Zayn Malik

I did film a video of me talking about this but I decided not to edit and upload it, partially because the lighting wasn't great and also because I wanted to ensure that my opinion wasn't just all over the place. As you will have definitely heard, as it's been all over Twitter and the major news channels, Zayn Malik has decided to leave One Direction. This isn't at all uncommon in pop bands, I mean you could trace this right back to The Beatles (all four members left at different points until deciding to split), Justin Timberlake left 'N Sync, Beyonce left Destiny's Child, Robbie Williams left Take That.. y'know it's not anything new. I just feel that some of the responses to Zayn Malik leaving is completely unreasonable.

Obviously, fans of One Direction are pretty upset but the majority of them do want the best for Zayn, and if that means him leaving the group, that's something they've accepted. I need to really emphasize that it's only a tiny tiny minority who are self-harming and committing suicide over Zayn leaving, obviously that's terrible and it shouldn't come to that, but I don't like how so many people are condemning an entire fandom made up of millions of people based on a few extremist fans. 

Furthermore, I've heard far too many people comparing Zayn leaving to 150 people dying in a plane crash. Obviously it's terrible that people died in a plane crash, but is it fair to criticise fans of a pop group, most of whom are probably under the age of 18, for not solely talking about the plane crash? Don't get me wrong here, but people generally have the capacity to think about more than one thing at once so it's not like these kids have so much of a one track mind to the point where they can no longer care about 150 people dying. Y'know unless they're sadists and they enjoy hearing that people have died and are suffering, but funnily enough I don't think many sadists are into What Makes You Beautiful or Live While We're Young - but hey, I won't judge an entire population of sadists based on a small minority. Y'know why I won't do that? Because that's exactly what a bunch of the people criticising directioners are doing, and I know I'm better than that. 

Continuing on from that point, maybe you don't feel any sort of connection to celebrities like musicians, writers, YouTubers and the sort, but these fans evidently do so that's why it's absolutely fine for them to be upset about a member leaving. These 150 people on the plane didn't have a connection to the fans of One Direction prior to the crash so whilst they'll obviously be sad about 150 deaths, they're probably going to have more to say on the issue of someone who they felt a genuine connection to. These mostly under-18 fans aren't going to have much to say on the issue of a plane crash besides from 'that's terrible, I hope their family are okay' whereas if you've grown up with a band and grown attached to the members and you know a lot about them, you're obviously going to have a lot more to say because to a certain degree, you know them.

On top of this, I think the reaction by many on Twitter stating that 'this isn't a big deal' and 'the fans are being irrational' is unfair and is evident of a complete lack of empathy. It may not be a big deal to you but just because something doesn't affect you doesn't in any way, shape or form give you the right to invalidate someone else's feelings. It doesn't take a lot to put yourself in someone else's shoes and imagine how you might feel if someone from your favourite band, who was possibly even your favourite member, has left and you may not see any new content from them again. If you can't empathise with them even a little bit, that makes you the worse person. Also, is it completely irrational? Zayn's clearly having some sort of mental issues at the moment, I don't want to assume what they might be, but he's clearly having a tough time and is it at all surprising? Since the formation of One Direction, Zayn has faced constant Islamaphobia and has been accused of plotting jihad, as well as being accused of being a bad Muslim and basically being criticised for not being like the other members of the group. This bullying is enough to make anyone ill, and the fact that he put up with it for so long shows a lot of courage, as well as the fact that he's now deciding to step down which is courageous because it's hard to tell yourself you need help and you need to stop allowing yourself to be treated that way.

In addition, as my lovely friend Antoinette said on Instagram, attacks on One Direction based on the fanbase being young girls is an attack on women and you're not giving them any sort of basic respect just because they don't listen to bands like the The Beatles, and whilst we're on that subject, The Beatles are my favourite band and I've done a hell of a lot of research on them, but you know what doesn't take a lot of research to figure out? The fact that The Beatles' fandom were young girls. I won't deny there were a lot of males listening to them, but come on you have no right to be so pretentious on the matter when the fandoms are actually very similar, they're just from different eras. In fact, I would say Beatlemaniacs were even crazier than Directioners - let's not forget that there was one Beatlemaniac who physically tried to mail herself to The Beatles. So whilst you're being pretentious and criticising a young girl for not listening to the same music you do, do a little bit of research so you can come to the realisation that their fandoms aren't so different.

One final point (I promise), I don't really agree with the idolisation of celebrities in general because they are people and I don't think that degree of obsession is healthy for the celebrity or the obsessor. I mean Zayn has said he's left the group to try and be a normal 22 year old, which is practically impossible when you're being idolised into perfection so you feel you can't make mistakes or do what other 22 year olds do. At the end of the day, you don't have to like One Direction, but you have to accept that there are people who do like them and they have a right to be sad about this - don't invalidate their feelings just because you lack the ability to empathise.

How are you feeling about Zayn leaving One Direction?

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"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, except polio"

A phrase that has bothered me for essentially my whole life is 'whatever kills you makes you stronger', my thoughts are illustrated in this Tumblr post I reblogged. I am somewhat of a pessimist in most situations so perhaps that why I find the phrase particularly bothersome, but it's a genuinely flawed form of motivation.

What many people don't know is that The Inbetweeners is actually full of motivational quotes.

I think in a lot of cases, it's important to tell people that things get better. Whether it be regarding school, as there will one day be a point where you won't be in education, or whether it be regarding mental health issues, as sometimes it can seem like things will never improve, it is in a lot of cases important to emphasize that things do get better.

However, telling people that because something doesn't kill you, you'll end up stronger, is silly - in fact, to use a phrase coined by Jeremy Bentham, it's 'nonsense upon stilts'*. For example, on average 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence over their lifetimes and between 6-10% of women suffer domestic violence in a given year - sure, they may not have died, but that doesn't mean they ended up stronger on the other side and it's quite likely that the experience stayed with them and has had a massively  negative impact on their day-to-day lives. Saying 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' belittles a person's problem and invalidates their feelings as a result, and there are many more situations where this same thing would happen and a person would end up having their problem reduced and their right to feel and react to a situation in a certain way revoked.

I understand that there are some situations where a bad experience will teach you how to respond in a future, similar situation because you'll have newfound knowledge, but does that make you stronger? If a close relative dies and you grieve and learn to go about your day-to-day life again, that doesn't really make you stronger for when another close relative dies. Life isn't a mathematical equation, no situation is ever exactly the same so even if you know how to respond to a similar situation, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be stronger in that situation. Saying 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger' makes it seem like a bad period in someone's life is just a learning curve which is absolute crap, bad things happen to people, and there probably isn't some sort of purpose behind it, it's just 'screws fall out all the time, the world's an imperfect place'** so what we should do is let people respond to bad situations in their own way (as long as it's not hurting other people y'know sensibly), don't attempt to reduce their problem by telling them it's just a learning curve.

So, I propose that we change the phrase:
 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' 
and replace it with:
 'what doesn't kill won't make you stronger but more knowledgeable in a certain situation so you may have a better idea of how to respond but that won't at all diminish the pain caused because your feelings are valid and shouldn't be dismissed'
But I somehow don't think that's got as much of a ring to it, but as long as you remember that your feelings are valid, and it's okay to not be okay sometimes, that's all that matters here.

Do you like motivational quotes?

*The benefits of doing Philosophy A level truly is learning quotes like 'nonsense upon stilts' to use in day to day conversation
**Check here for the quote reference

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Bitter about Valentine's? Get the heck over it!

I'm 18 years old and I've never really had a proper boyfriend, sure I had some primary school ones, but preferably I'd like to pretend that cringey era in my life never happened. Nevertheless, I've still never been bitter about not having a Valentines. For the majority of my life, I never really cared, I treated it as another day. Then when I got older in high school I started watching rom-coms and consuming copious amounts of food with a high sugar content to make some sort of ironic statement (it's always about the irony with me), but for all of my teenage years, without fail, I find so many people being bitter about Valentine's Day, and I ask you why.

Exhibit A of the rom-coms watched on Valentine's Day, although I've seen both Bridget Jones films too many times to recall (well.. how much is too much when you have Hugh Grant and Colin Firth?)

When I started noticing the bitterness around February 14th, it was generally focused upon the fact that the person writing it was single. So, fine, you're jealous and you want to be in a relationship, that's your prerogative sure, but I don't understand why this influx of sourness is focused upon Valentine's Day. When you go to a wedding, you generally don't go feeling sorry for yourself because you're not married (although marriage shouldn't be a goal in life, y'know oppression of women in its most traditional form but you can do it if you want yada yada yada different topic for a different blog post). When it's someone's anniversary, you don't go feeling sorry for yourself because you haven't been in a relationship that long or you're not in a relationship, so it doesn't really explain why people are so bitter around Valentine's Day.

The second source of bitterness is the commercial aspect of Valentine's Day. You'd be a bit stupid to ignore the fact that Valentine's Day is or at least has become a commercial holiday, but what holiday or occasion hasn't? We live in a world dominated by Capitalism, you can't just opt out of it (the revolution is comin' dudes), this means that most things are based upon a system of commercialism, but why is it mostly Valentine's Day that takes the hits? I know Christmas takes some punches, but let's be honest it's mostly Valentine's Day that suffers. Let's think of your birthday for example, it's possible that you're part of the small population that doesn't celebrate your birthday, but generally it's a day of gift receiving and essentially spending money, but you don't seem to complain and no one else seems to complain either  - can you imagine?

"Gee wiz, I hate your birthday, it's such a commercial occasion, we should instead focus our attention to overthrowing the bourgeoisie and destroying the rigid class system"

Alright comrade, we get your point, Valentine's Day is commercial, but you can't opt out of Capitalism, so unless you're going to join the revolution and start to attempt to crush the elite, your criticisms are pointless and, in my opinion, seem a little pretentious. 

It's pretty easy to say that you should celebrate your love with another person (or more than that if you're into polygamy) every day, but is it really such a satanic practice to have one day dedicated to really showing a person you love them? Daily routine can become mundane and we can become blasé about sentiments that we receive on a daily basis. Furthermore, we don't celebrate the fact that we're aging and rapidly reaching an inevitable death everyday so why should we 'celebrate' the fact that we've found a person  who we love everyday? I'm not advising you ignore your partner every other day of the year, but there's a difference between acknowledging affection towards someone else daily and celebrating so criticising Valentine's day on the grounds that you should celebrate your love for someone else every day is a little preposterous.

Essentially, all I'm trying to say, is stop being so damn bitter y'all. If you don't want to celebrate Valentine's Day, don't, but don't rain on someone else's parade because they may be perfectly happy celebrating it and that's their choice, you can easily ignore one day of the year, so get the heck over it. If someone, who's forever alone like me, can, so can you.

What are your opinions on Valentine's Day?

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Sod off Demi, I wear makeup for me

When I was 12 years old, my idol was Demi Lovato. This was before she came out with her mental illnesses and it became cool to like her, I loved Sonny with a Chance and I thought Don't Forget was one of the best albums of all time, and for a long she remained my idol. More so, after she announced she was mentally ill, she became a beacon of hope for me in some sense, but over time my adoration decreased and after her tweets about makeup, whatever adoration I had for her is virtually gone. Her tweets actually came to my attention through Gabby from Velvetgh0st and I really agree with her opinions on the matter, you probably all know who she is already but I had to just note that it was through her that I picked up on this.

The thing I find most problematic with her attitude towards makeup is the fact that she has been an icon for empowerment for a long time, even more so after she announced to the world that she had been suffering with an eating disorder, and it honestly just upsets me more than anything that someone who I once looked up to would turn around and try to tell people, namely women in her tweets, not to express themselves or to make themselves feel more confident through the means of makeup. 

Her underlying point being 'you don't need makeup to be beautiful' is a sound point, but the way she illustrated her point was poor. Many people, myself included, generally don't feel remotely attractive without make up and that sucks, it sucks a lot, but for her to make those people feel guilty for wearing makeup, whether in excess amounts of not, is quite heavy handed given that she claims to be all for people doing what they have to do to feel confident in their own skin. Plus, she is a celebrity who performs, does photo shoots, interviews.. the whole celeb shabam y'know, so the odds are that in fact she wears a hell of a lot of makeup. Yes, she probably has a make up artist to make sure everything's perfectly blended and she has the crème de la crème of cosmetics, but that means that she, in fact, wears probably the same amount of makeup as the people she's criticising. 

Furthermore, makeup, at the end of the day, is an art form. As said by Dan Howell (here), it's 'art for your face' and I think in that 27 second video, Dan made a good point about how it is up to the person putting on the make up and whilst he has his preferences, it's primarily up to the person putting on the makeup. As long as what you're putting onto your face isn't hurting other people or yourself, and if it's making you happy, no one really should get a say in what you're doing. Plus, a lot of people use make up for the fun of the application and not to impress other people. The idea that women* only apply make up to please other people, mostly men, is one of the most aggravating opinions a person can hold. Men generally don't care about whether an eyeshadow is well blended or if your eyeliner is on fleek, so can we just disregard the idea that women only use makeup to impress men? Please?

I do really think that people don't need makeup to be beautiful, we are all inherently beautiful (y'know unless you're David Cameron, Nigel Farage or a Thatcherite, but I diverge..) but wearing makeup is a right you have and if you want to utilise that right, that is your prerogative and no one has the right to criticise you for that. If we start criticising a person's right to wear makeup how they want to wear it, whether it's for a confidence boost or for the sheer thrill of the application, where do we stop criticising the choices that people make**? If it's not hurting yourself or anyone else, the hell with it - do it.  There's already enough judgement regarding what women wear clothes-wise, I couldn't even tell you the amount of times I've been criticised for wearing a short skirt or shorts because it makes me look like a hartlot or that I'm trying to impress men, so it would be nice if people, in this case Demi Lovato, could let people do what they want if it's making themselves happy and not hurting other people in the process. If celebrities start criticising people for living their life in a manner that makes them happy, they're simply making it harder for people to sympathise with them when the paparazzi criticise them for living their life in a manner that makes them happy. 

Overall, let's stop judging each other for doing what we want to do. As long as what you're saying and doing isn't hurting other people and it's making you happy, just do it. You're welcome to your opinions of course, but just because you don't like bright blue eyeshadow doesn't mean you can criticise others for wearing it. Other people do not have the right to dictate how you live your life, you do you honey.

What are your reasons for wearing makeup?

*I've generalised this to women purely because I hear about this solely from female friends, I've tried very hard not to generalise this post to women so please forgive me on this one!

**But we all have the right to criticise Nick Clegg on increasing university fees, we'll never forget that one Lib Dems.

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18 things I learned by 18

1. Always bring your iPhone charger with you, where ever you're going. You never want to be in a situation where your battery is too low to listen to You're Gonna Lose That Girl or Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now for the thousandth time. 

2. Never leave the house without a book. A bus journey without reading material is a bus journey not worth taking.

3. Don't forget that your journal is there for when you're feeling the bitter winds of teenage angst.

4. Saying 'I'm not a feminist, I believe in equality' is the most stupid thing a person can say. Embrace your feminism, educate the ignorant and don't stop complaining until things change.

5. Your parents were right about Morrissey and The Smiths. The years of denying yourself the pleasure of The Headmaster Ritual, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, and How Soon Is Now? are years you will never get back, so face facts and accept that when it comes to music your parents know what they're talking about - it will save you a lot of time.

6. Don't be ashamed of still not being over High School Musical, anyone who doesn't like it is a dirty, rotten liar and they need to get their head in the game. Also don't be ashamed of the fact that you still watch Disney channel and get excited when they show Hannah Montana.

7. Foundation and concealer do not make you look cakey and orange if applied in the right shade and with the right amount, you can cover up those dark circles that you hate oh so much.

8. Biology A Level was never going to be your thing, you knew that from the first week of sixth form and just because you got a B at GCSE in a ridiculously hard Biology curriculum (Cambridge iGCSE is no joke people) it doesn't mean you're going to become an expert in phospholipid membranes and tertiary structures, so don't stress yourself out about it too much.

9. Try not to let your anxiety control you, say yes to more opportunities, but don't feel bad and beat yourself up if you're not up to meeting up with friends once in a while, it's all about baby steps.

10. Doctor Who is worth the hype. Give it another go, start from Christopher Eccleston - enjoy.

11. Don't upload photos of yourself on Facebook at least until age 15/16, seriously anything before then is not a pretty sight and by the time you discover this there will be hundreds to go through and make private or delete - save yourself this time.

12. You don't need to buy every Beatles band shirt you find, if you have nearly twenty, you have a problem and an empty purse.

13. As much as you want to date Tom Felton/Draco Malfoy (in the movies of course because Draco in the books is an arse wipe) you are not a Slytherin, as you find out at age 17, you are a gryffindor (and it's great - go go gryffindor!)

14. Answer your phone. Seriously. People know you're scared of picking up the phone, and they're generally sympathetic, which is why if they're calling you it is important - so pick up your damn phone once in a while.

15. Reading reader insert fanfictions probably isn't the best use of your time, but if it helps you forget about the inevitability of you being forever alone, go right ahead and do it.

16. That existential crisis you've been having since you were 12? Yeah, that's not going anywhere any time soon. Just try not to bum everyone else out by talking about the inevitability of death and the insignificance of humankind because it's not the greatest conversation starter.

17. One Direction are not that bad. Perhaps pop music is all manufactured and a disgrace to the greats like The Beatles, The Smiths, Ben Folds Five, Arctic Monkeys (and so on) but they are catchy and can be quite fun. However, you can maintain that pretentious façade and claim you only listen to 'I want' because it's written by Tom Fletcher and because it sounds exactly like a McFly song if it makes you feel better.

18. You don't need to have your entire life plan figured out by age 18. Very few people do, enjoy the next few years and get some life experience (preferably experience that doesn't require a wifi connection, yes Tumblr I'm looking at you)

What wisdom can you pass on from your life experience?

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If I can dream - a post about Ferguson

Nearly two months ago, a young Mike Brown was shot eight times in Ferguson by Darren Wilson. I feel it important to mention that Mike Brown was a black man, if you're unaware of the case you may wonder why I would bother to mention that but my reasoning is this: it is undecided as to whether Darren Wilson will be arrested because, whilst everyone knows who Mike Brown's murderer is, certain people are puzzled as to whether the life of a black man is worth enough to punish a murderer. 

I mean hey, it's not like black people should be treated equally to white people is it?

The reasoning behind this post being called 'If I can dream' is because this song that was sung by Elvis Presley really reminds me of what's going in America racially. Trayvon Martin was killed over two years ago and whilst that sparked the attention of the media and a lot of the population, and it also resulted in the arrest of George Zimmerman, I feel the death of Mike Brown shows that things haven't changed.

This song has always had resonance within me because it's a song that my parents sing a lot (we have an amateur recording studio in our house guys it's pretty cool) but it was whilst walking home from school about a week ago that I listened this song and just realised how we haven't come far enough since Elvis sang this song in 1968 after the death of Martin Luther King, I found myself crying on the way home because of this because I have been very interested in the Mike Brown case and it upsets me regardless but this made me even more upset. Then today, I decided to attempt to play it on the piano and I couldn't get through it without images of Mike Brown flooding into my head, I was initially planning to upload a clip of me playing a snippet of the song for Instagram and then just have a little rant telling people not to forget Ferguson, but I realised I have too much to say for a simple Instagram post.

This issue just angers me so much. Mike Brown did nothing to aggravate Darren Wilson, he had his hands up, Darren Wilson just decided to stop him in the middle of street and shoot. Similarly to Trayvon Martin, all he did was buy a packet of skittles and wear a hoody. Black people are the oppressed and it has been that way for far too long. 

Why is it that a black person cannot leave their house for fear of being murdered? I feel I am quite fortunate because firstly in the UK we don't have the right to bear arms so it's less likely you'll be shot, but I know for a fact there is just as much racism and sexism in the police force here as I've had relatives who have been in the police force. 

I suppose all I want to say in this post is please don't forget Ferguson. That's what the police want, that's what Darren Wilson wants. If you forget Ferguson, if you don't show your support either through donation or through just mentioning it on social networks, you are helping to keep them in the position of power which allowed them to do this in the first place. If you need any more persuading to keep talking about Ferguson, here it is:

"Mike Brown was a kid who didn’t want to play football, even though he had the body for it. When asked why, he told his friends that he didn’t want to hit anybody.

This is the child that they’re going to paint as a thug."

Thanks for reading, I hope I haven't scared you all off with my angriness but I can't take it any more.

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