Time for that New Year, New You, right? Well in my case, it’s New Year, New Book.

So mainly, I started out with the blog. Then, one thing led to another, and articles turned into a full blown novel! Surprisingly, my built-up anger towards the shallow and plastic society surrounding me allowed me to come up with a fiction that shed the light on the main obstacles paralyzing Lebanon, and preventing it from moving forward culturally and socially.

Nevertheless, my story takes place in an anonymous “country”. I wanted everyone, wherever they were located, to be able to relate to the character. And let’s make one thing clear; no country is perfect. We might suffer from cultural immaturity but I am sure that other places have their own discrepancies.

Truth is; I got tired.

I got tired of the “Instagram famous”, “socialites”, “fashionistas”, “fashion bloggers”, “digital influencers”.  With all due respect to these social media girls: people your age (twenties/early thirties) with “normal” jobs cannot afford what you flaunt in your pictures. You are absolutely free to wear designer clothes if you are able to pay for them. But stop making it seem like it’s an easy task to afford a 10,000 dollars outfit just by having thousands of followers on Instagram. And how do you call yourselves influencers and icons to look up to, when you are actually creating in your followers a sense of low self-esteem, and pushing girls to get bank loans just to have a picture with a designer dress and a brand bag.  Whatever happened to beautiful street style with affordable prices? Some of you are paid to wear couture and post pictures? Fine. Know your target audience then; women in their mid-thirties and above who are actually able to be influenced and buy what you are marketing. Not teenagers and young adults buying fake stuff and calling it couture, or getting themselves indebted just to look like you.

I got tired of the human weighing machines. What happened to “Hello, how are you?” Why do they ALWAYS have to comment about your weight the second they lay eyes on you? “OH MY GOD you lost so much weight!” “Holy shit look at you, you’ve put on a whole lots of pounds!” Are you a scale?! I think not. Do you know what this person is going through? Whether they have a health problem, or whether they simply have a fat or skinny constitution?  Keep your opinion to yourself! Enough with the shaming, FAT OR SKINNY! Find an interesting subject to discuss for once, other than each other’s bodies.

I got tired of the fake friends, the hypocrisy and the boyfriend/husband fever at 25 years old. I got tired of giving my all to my girls, being the shoulder they cry on when their lives go to shit, and then being thrown away like a used Kleenex when they put their pieces back together. I got tired of the useless outings to bars and clubs just because they have to be seen at Caprice on a Friday Night and at O1ne on a Saturday. I got tired of being looked down on if I am not in a relationship at the moment. So wait a minute, you are telling me I better be with ANYONE (good, bad, violent, ambitionless, daddy’s boy …and the list goes on…) instead of being alone for a few months? No thank you.

I got tired, so I wrote a book!

And I hope each and every one of you will find themselves in parts of it. And I hope the messages are heard and understood. Because we can’t keep falling into this pit of ignorance and shallowness. The youth, especially, needs to bounce back.

Happy Reading!