Making it clear

Yesterday our group came up against our biggest concerns with our project, that the ideas and valuable points to the story aren’t clear enough. Our project takes place over the online presence of Emily, a teenage girl. Obviously Emily isn’t going to realise the irony and cultural significance of her mindset, so it isn’t something she directly writes about and is something that must be read between the lines.

Adding to the problem, as we’re writing with the characteristics of a teenager’s diary, everything is very simple and it might come off as a story that hasn’t had any thought go into it, or even as too real. For example, this is one of our recent posts, and it’s quite significant to our story, but it truly does sound like a teenager lamenting about her inadequacies:

argh sometimes i just cant get over how beautiful Kylie (Kylie Jenner) is………it sucks.

she is my favourite Kardashian sister by far and is such an inspiration. she was barely noticed on the Kardashian’s show until she started her tumblr and vine and now she is everywhere and everyone loves her.

i dont understand how a girl the same age as me has a body like that…blahhh it kills me.
i’ll never have a body like that, i dont have any curves, i havnt even got big enough boobs for a pushup bra to work. how is anyone going to notice me without a face like hers. she has so many followers, just because she’s so beautiful, how does an ordinary person compare?

and her style is always so on point. she really is my inspiration, i just want her life. i’m so lame, i’m at home alone on a friday night, she’s probably living it up with all her famous friends. i bet those girls at school are doing something amazing as well. its harder to make friends here than i thought it would be…

There are several connotations to this post:

  • Firstly, how the insecurities of young people are perpetuated by witnessing unrealistic and unnatural ideals projected by the edited and modified presences of celebrities.
  • How people can become famous for nothing as Kylie Jenner is, or famous for being beautiful and projecting an ideal life that others follow due to envy and admiration.
  • It also develops our character Emily as a deeply insecure person who is dissatisfied with her ordinary life due to making comparisons with the lives of those she follows online, and also through fictional lives, as demonstrated through her obsession with The Carrie Diaries. She represents a great amount of young people who compare themselves to unrealistic role models and lifestyles online and through various media.

The concern is that these points aren’t obvious enough, and it is a challenge to make them clearer. We are also reblogging many photos on the Tumblr, and it might seem as if these posts are chosen at random, however much thought goes into these posts, we choose pictures which both support our themes (demonstrating the ridiculous things that circulate online that are not representative of reality) and portray Emily’s headspace. The reblogging supports the textual posts, but their relationship may not be clear and I’m not sure how to make it clearer considering the challenge of speaking only through Emily’s online presence. I’m hoping that I’m not giving an audience enough credit, and they’ll be able to figure it out for themselves.