Is There Anybody (Normal) Out There?
Hi, my name is Monica Zaldumbide Alcocer, I’m 27 years old and I’m NOT famous.
Months ago I was surfing into the amazing and humongous world of “blogging” and came across “Americanoize”, it turns out that a person who recently has my attention and admiration writes there, so I decided to take a look (I will not mention her name at this time, but I hope I can have some conversations with her about topics that interest me and then I can mention her with her full authorization).
I was really surprised to see the freedom that their collaborators had to write and and I discovered that although the navigation in this blog can be like any other, It has something that shouted to me “read me I´m different”, so then I start, I surf and surf across the page, yet to agree that indeed it has something different, some of their contents are directed to “normal” people — not bloggers, celebrities, influencers, etc, and I was surprised because I think that´s just what the society needs (I’m not trying to do any kind of propaganda or advertising, it’s my real opinion.)
We the “Normal” people, I include myself in this category, because as I said in my first line I AM NOT FAMOUS, are being bombarded every day, at all hours by “manufactured” women, probably with real beauty altered by multiple applications that embellish face, alter body measurements, eliminate acne, cellulite, baldness, whiten teeth, highlight eyes, add freckles, increase bust, reduce waist, tone muscle, add hair, increase height and even position the person in question in a major tourist place or beautiful landscapes (which also suffer alterations), and we are being influenced to look for an image as foreign as possible to the one we see every day in the mirror, less “myself” and more “in this you can become doing this […] eating this […], rubbing this […], etc … “ with false advertising messages that try to convince you that” yourself “is very valuable, but you have to change 99% of who you are (Listen to Pink’s song “Don’t let me get me” from the 2001 Mizsundaztood album as a soundtrack of this text).
Me like many “normal” women, I’ve been influenced by how to get a Kardashian waist, look for miracle ointments to remove any marks of acne or wrinkle, eat food “X” to have body “Y”, but I have decided that is enough. I am not generalizing that all influential people generate such messages, on the contrary, there are a number of people who seek to defend a healthy life, love your body and become a real inspiration and a positive influence for his followers. But the point of this text is not only to thank that these people exist, but to achieve that each time there are less of those that are manufactured.
This is something of my story, from the age of 14 I wanted to make a blog that was aimed to people who can not buy a Chanel bag or Manolo Blahnik shoes but who like to manage a good outfit, trends with proposals and accessible fashion, I was invited to Fashion Week in Mexico for many years, and it was in an event of these where a person very positioned in the fashion industry told me something that badly destroyed my dream of giving people a different vision of the world of fashion — the world of fashion to which I belonged where you could find a good gabardine in Zara that you mixed with a boyfriend H & M jeans, some T-shirt from some musical group inherited or bought in a concert and boots of Massimo Dutti — she approached to me between parades and we talk a little about my fashion point of view for what she answered me “People want what they can not have, they follow who least reminds themselves, consumes what they borrow, everyone wants a Vogue closet and few are interested in knowing that you fit a pair of boots of 400 Mexican pesos ($ 17.74 MXN = $ 1 USD), my advice is that you better dedicate yourself to something else, here the point is to come to Fashion Week with some of the clothes of the designer’s in the event, the last Fendi bag, Gucci shoes…” (and she started to mention infinite brands that of course I didn’t have a single garment — Listen to Jimmy James “Fashionista” and you´ll know what I mean-), concluding her inspiring message saying
“ the world of fashion is not for the poor, you gotta have a certain weight to be here, not only in the body but in the wallet, someone has to know you, a village girl can´t come and think that what has worked for many years will change simply because a few think so.”
I mistakenly let that message permeate the security I had that the world was full of people like me, middle-class consumers who want to look good without having to spend thousands of pesos (insert your currency) on some garment. My blog was never created, I did nothing about it, I gave up my dream of being a blogger, becoming a “famous” fashion stylist and instead I became the stylist of my sisters, cousins and friends.
Today almost 9 years of that event I realize that thanks to social networks, platforms made for “normal” people to express their opinions, digital magazines, etc … society has allowed more people to express their point of view of fashion and I decided to be part of one of those. I do not want to become the most famous blogger, and I do not know if I stand out because of my way of dressing, I just want to find a platform where I can communicate my comic way of seeing life and telling stories, mixing it with what I like about clothes, talking about the things I would like to have in my house, thinks I like to do, eat or think, and even mentioning people from that big world that have become a true inspiration for me, also I would love to offer consumers accessible options to buy clothes, and help that little by little fewer and fewer people like the one that destroyed the dreams of a teenager by transmitting her poor point of view of one of the worlds with more openness, creativity and versatility, gain power.
I do not have my own website, I do not have the letter “K” in my followers on instagram, in fact I do not have Facebook, but I dont think it takes any of that to be able to make a connection between someone “normal” to another “normal” consumer. I have much more to say but I do not want to stick to the subject, I hope to find many opportunities to be able to pass on what interests me, what moves me, what I like and what I do not like, from “normal” to “normal”, I hope to see you in my next post.
Well, as we say in Mexico “Ahí nos vemos”.
