She's such a Badass.

September 24, 2014

"I'm just living my life, and I'm not gonna live my life for other people." Taylor Momsen

{Taylor Momsen appreciation post}

Lately one of my obsession's is the band 'The Pretty Reckless' and the absolute badass of a lead singer, Taylor Momsen. Many of you would know Taylor from her role as Lucy Lou Who on the Grinch and Little J/Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl.

When comparing the pictures on the side to the picture above you can see that Taylor has grown up quite a lot. Though when I was looking for pictures to put in this blog post I found quite a few people saying really awful things about Taylor. It got me thinking a lot about the nature of child stars today and how if any actor or actress changes something about themselves from the person they were they are described as a "bad role model," crazy or the common "she's gone off the rails." Isn't there something wrong with society if the actors and actresses that we worshiped as children are checking into rehab and suffering greatly. Now before you make assumptions and begin to hit that button criticising me for what I'm saying, just hold off for one minute and let me finish. What I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with the child actor/actress themselves checking into rehab or suffering from a mental and/or physical illness, there is something wrong with our society that a person's moment of weakness is splashed across the front page of every magazine and the gossip section of our newspapers. Sure we can blame society for bad things happening to people but what really upsets me is the fact that people are not able to recover in peace. We have become so nosey that we must know everything about a person's private life and this often worsens their condition and leads to the loss of so many of the world's great talents. In effect this could mean that because our society must know everything is it our fault that so many stars feel so much pressure and are not able to recover?

Okany anyway back to the appreciation of Taylor, sorry that got real deep real quick.

Taylor is one of those stars like Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. She was depicted as the perfect daughter at the start of Gossip Girl, keeping her nose clean (just warning may be a couple spoilers coming up) being an overall top kid, but as you continue to watch the show her character evolves greatly into something more like her actual self due to the pressure of society to be something that she was not. Like these pre-mentioned actresses and singers it is often hard to shake the role that you had when you were a teenager, which means that people often become typecast and when they try to be themselves people cannot stop comparing them to their character, even though they may have been nothing like this when they were playing that role. I can't speak on anyone if these peoples behalves, but I feel like this is what is happening.

For me, Taylor is a major inspiration. She has broken out of the character that has somewhat defined how people would expect her to be and has become her own person. Her band the 'The Pretty Reckless' has fast become one of my favourite bands and Taylor herself just has this aura and attitude about her where she doesn't give a damn what people think of her and I think sometimes we all need a bit of that.

She's not just inspiring for me because of her attitude but she also has a killer sense of style. Some might say that having black sticky tape over your nipples is a little too much, but you know if the shoe fits.
Personally, I don't think I could ever wear something quite as bold as half her outfits but there is no denial that she has got awesome clothes. Her outfits mainly feature of black pieces matched with spiked combat boots and ripped jeans, and I have found that it's not too hard to match something similar to what she's wearing with something less bold and more me. Though, now I think about it, I really need to purchase some ripped jeans.

Thanks to a recommendation from Nicole I have become completely obsessed with their music, my favourite songs being 'Makes Me Wanna Die' and 'Kill Me.' I adore the nature of this music and found myself rushing to JB Hi-Fi to by both albums, which I will link below.
When you think about it though, a lot of people will judge Taylor by what she wears and how she carries herself in life, but I think what she does is so incredibly bold and brave. She is so true to herself even when she is constantly criticised and in our society it is often hard to be you, because of this fear of judgement. I would definitely recommend taking a listen to the bands stuff or even researching more about Taylor, because if someone who is 21 years of age can have such a killer sense of style and can write such amazing songs there is nothing stopping us from being who we want to be. There is nothing stopping you from ripping every pair of jeans that you own and lining your eyes with black eyeliner. We live in a world where we fear judgement and the more I write about it, the angrier I get. I need to stop caring so much what other people think of me and do what I love, purely because I love it, not to satisfy or impress others but just do it because it's what I want and because it feels right.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to guy buy some ripped jeans and purple lipstick.

Here are some Taylor quotes which I found and I thought I would share with you:
"You can wear anything as long as you put a nice paid of shoes with it"
"I'm pretty, but I'm not like, a 'pretty girl'"
"People misinterpret what I say all the time: they think I'm being offensive, when really, I'm only being opinionated."
"My lyrics are my diary - you're hearing every detail of my life."
"You can spend your whole life planning. But once you're ready, get out there and start doing it."
"My style's not for everyone - I'm an extremist."
"My whole thing is feel free to hate me - I so don't care if you hate me, but meet me, listen to my record, and know me before you hate me."
"I am trying to do my own thing, but there will always be comparisons, even if I don't agree with them."
"I think music needs danger; it needs risk."
"New York's home. It's everything I'd want it to be. It's the most inspiring city I've ever been to, and I haven't been everywhere in the world, but I've been to quite a few places."
"Generally, I like making my own mistakes and learning from them because that's what I think life is about."
"Like, when I write a song, the song comes first before production. Everything is written on an acoustic guitar so that you can strip away everything from it and have to be equally as entertaining and good without the bells and whistles."
"Tabloids are going to focus on my shoes and not my music; that's just what they do."
"I hope girls read what I say in interviews - they should just be themselves."