I was surprised when I saw Willow performing scream metal on SNL.
And I was also surprised to read how many people were hating on her for it.
Because what I saw was somebody who was smiling, dancing, passionate, absorbed, and fully expressing what appeared to be her authentic self.
Maybe scream metal is what joy looks like for Willow? Why throw hate on that? Maybe if we each could express ourselves as unapologetically as Willow, we’d be screaming with full, raw emotion too.
Assuming this really is Willow’s authentic sense of expression and does give her a sense of joy… imagine her copying and pasting the lifestyle of, say, Kylie Jenner instead.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Kylie Jenner’s lifestyle, but copied and pasted onto Willow’s life? …I’d say it would feel completely backwards.
And what would follow probably wouldn’t be a sense of joy—even though joy is what Kylie (probably) gets from her lifestyle. What would follow would likely be misery, imposter syndrome, and a dulled existence.
And what we need isn’t more dull, copy-pasted humans—what we need are more humans who have come alive and who can unapologetically scream from the rooftops about it.
So, before you copy and paste someone else’s lifestyle onto your own because they appear to be joyful—uncopy and don’t paste. Look within instead. The answers are already there. You just have to give yourself permission to unapologetically express yourself.
Translated loosely: do you and forget the haters.
P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.