Shop for Winter in the Summer

Guess what I shop for at Summer sales? Winter outfits!! This is because they are at their lowest price point at this time. And this way you can be super stylish next Winter at a really great price. And if you really think about it, how many coats do you really rotate out during the winter? You probably end up wearing your favorite over and over, so you might as well invest in one that you really love that is at a medium price point!

The meaning behind millenial pink + Kylie Jenner's Cosmetics Pop Up in San Francisco

As I walked up to the Kylie Jenner Cosmetics Pop Up Shop in San Francisco today, I noticed Millenial Pink covering her exterior windows, her millenial pink "drip paint" or shall I say "tears" covering all windows blocking the outside world from inside.

 I have loved the color pink since as far back as I can remember. I remember I had a full blown pink phase in college (in 2008) where literally all my tops were pink, my bed cover was a soft pink, my eyeglasses were pink etc.  My favorite ad campaign was hanging on my wall - an all-pink Dior sunglass campaign with pink bags on the floor surrounding a girl in a pink bathing suit and pink sunglasses.

 But I can also remember that I didn't always love pink. I remember there was my goth phase in the 6th grade, which developed through influences from music - black was my favorite color then, Hot Topics also came onto the scene at this time.

 So what is it that has drawn so many millenials, now older in our 20's, back into the color pink? Pink is generally associated with baby girl parties, it is rooted in our sub conscience as representing femininity and represents the "female" gender.

If you ask my arrogant & stubborn side, and my design side - my answer would be because the color is soft, approachable, relaxing, sweet, and HAPPY. If it were so simple, to not have to delve too deeply into theorizing anything, I would simply say that it is a color that stands out, simply for the reason of its place on the color scale.

 However, nothing is ever as it seems, so, my grander theory is that since it is in all of our sub conscience that this color represents "FEMALE" and if females have been raised to be more empathetic, nurturing, holistic etc., in a world full of hate and trouble, maybe this is a subliminal cry of tears from the masses for a female takeover. A stamp of FEMALE in a row of male owned shops near Market Street in the center of Silicon Valley, 95% MALE.

 I am a cultural and radical feminist who believes that a complete overhaul, a complete takeover a complete replacement of the patriarchy by a matriarchy in all nations, is the solution to all of our problems.

 So as I leave the Kylie Cosmetics Pop Up with one of her KOURT x KYLIE lipglosses in my hand, I think to myself, "why did I just buy this?". When I have plenty of lipsticks at home.

 "Why did I buy this"? I have no idea.

But the answer is, I bought it because on the surface, this is just cosmetics. But deep down, this is war and we females, are all in this together.

My support is in my dollars, and me purchasing this lipgloss is a huge fuck you to the patriarchy.

 If this lipgloss could speak it would say, where's my 10%? Where's my raise? Where's my money? Where's my house? Where's my RESPECT?

As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Wed, a New Era.....AWAKENS

Ok so now that we have all awoken the next day after the grandiose yet tasteful wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the UK. And now that I woke up to a douchey text from some dude from three weeks away, reality has sunk back in. While yes, inclusion & diversity has officially reached its pinnacle point - the reality is that the institution of marriage shouldn't be so aggrandized. Young impressionable girls will still look to this wedding, and while yes, hallelujah has some cultural progressions and inclusive messages, and will think that marriage is the ultimate goal or reach or pinnacle of one's being. Side note - I did appreciate the message that Reverend Michael Curry sent about family, and "out with the old and in with the new" - which kind of made me snicker.

Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

In modern social media news today...a white boy married a colored girl, and I couldn't be more proud. I couldn't feel more happy for the message that it sends.. In my mind it's more like no shit colored girls like myself matter, but I guess these peeps needed a major icon to look up to and follow. It's kind of sad for the human brain to need such an awakening. When all my life, I was BORN woke. I am tearing up as I feel so relieved for mankind.

Narcissism or Self Love?

I tend to flip the script on most things, and when I think about social media and the way people use it - to promote themselves, for example, I think of self love. Most people would call this narcissism. But if it is narcissistic to be narcissistic (woah), then so be it. Because self-love could potentially evolve into world love. And by golly let's not try to stop that. The thing is, we can't control the way people think of us. We can do our best, by dressing well, speaking well, etc. to try to influence the way people judge us and stereotype us and hopefully, respect us. But the stereotypes that have been written about people that look like me, for example - Middle Eastern with thick frizzy curly hair - will not wash off me no matter how hard I try. So the best thing for me to do is to LOVE MYSELF, and do my best to reflect the way I think and feel about myself on social media, in hopes of influencing a few people to think about me in the same way. Social media allows me to be true to myself. It gives me a space to be who I am in my mind as opposed to who I have to be in socially constructed spaces. I have never felt more ethnic than I do now that I am 33 and living in San Francisco. I never realized how diverse Los Angeles was. WOW do I miss the diversity. There are so many caucasians here, and while they are respectful towards me, they (no matter how hard they try) cannot treat me the way I fully want to be treated because of their subconscious and their limiting beliefs due to the ways they were raised. It's no one's fault. It's everyone's fault. If we all rise up to a higher vibration, and stay woke, we can all live in world peace - and wow what would that type of world feel like? Nirvana? Utopia? Wonderland? I get excited just thinking about it. xoxo Annabella

My favorite things under $9

Dating in 2018 is like....

Dating in 2018 is like dating the same guy over and over again. Men are just not there yet. They aren't woke. The underlying reasons why it's not working out is because the way we were all socialized. It's possible I am being overly general - but 60 dates later. I think I have a better theory than most.

So, I think the best thing to do is just stop.

Just stop and give yourself time for yourself - for learning more about yourself, loving yourself first, and giving yourself lots of selfcare.

Give yourself more time to hang out with your girlfriends!

are middle easterns the real minority?

just a thought.