Carry on Beautiful!

This isn’t like other ‘articles’ you might read on Caroline Calloway, not least because it’s just a blog post, but because I’m a fan. I haven’t met her, I haven’t purchased her art because I can’t afford much more than a £3 bottle of wine as a treat but I can spare $2 a month to get extra content from her. I wanted to talk about this because I think a lot of people who hate Caroline manage to be very loud but those of us who like her are treated like we must just be stupid young girls (using ‘girls’ as another word for stupid of course) who desperately want her life style.

I can’t speak for every fan, but I don’t want Caroline’s lifestyle at all. I hate Pilates and that stuff she does and worrying about paying rent is all too familiar for me to find any way to glamorise it. I don’t like having flowers in my hair or having books everywhere. But I love all of those things for her.

I follow Caroline because she shares a huge amount of her life completely honestly and people attack her for things that most of us have done or been through at some point. I enjoy the content she creates because it’s, I believe, genuine, and when people bring up her bigger mistakes (like the book deal that fell through or cancelled shows) I can’t help but think, is it that much of a surprise? I doubt I’d have done any better that she did in those situations, maybe even worse. I find her hugely relatable because of her failures, mine may not have been so publicly passed around but they’ve happened all the same.

When people complain that she posts too many old pictures from years ago I again can’t help but wonder why that’s such a surprise. She’s clearly someone who reminisces and reflects on the past fairly often and it’s only natural that someone who shares so many parts of their life would share those wanderings into the past with their followers.

Then there’s the art debacle. Do her paintings take months of hard work to complete? No, I’d assume they don’t, and sure they don’t take the upmost time or talent, but surely the point of art is what it represents? If that is the case then it’s up to whoever buys it to decide if it’s worth the prices she asks, and since people are buying them they’re clearly worth it. I know I would personally buy one if I at any point have that kind of money to spend on art.

These are all the reasons I enjoy Caroline’s content, but why do I feel it’s worth my actual money each month to see a little extra? Because she’s made it fun. Watching her close friends stories feel like a little private friendship club with her, and of course I’m old enough to know that at the end of the day she’s making content because it’s what she’s now being paid to do there, but it feels genuine all the same.

Perhaps I’m just gullible and Caroline has scammed me after all, but all I see in Caroline is a young woman who keeps being attacked not only for her mistakes, which is understandable, but for everything about who she is from her writing to her taste in men and it’s gross. It’s gross to see other women attacking her and jumping on the hate wagon, it’s gross to see how little humanity people have when it comes to anyone with the slightest celebrity status and it’s gross that people so vocally hate on Caroline.

I don’t follow Caroline Calloway because I’m yearning for a New York come London, hot boyfriends and even hotter friends lifestyle, I follow Caroline Calloway because I enjoy seeing someone a similar age to me live a life that’s simultaneously very similar and incredibly different to mine and share and document it with the honesty and excitement that comes with being young. I like seeing someone like her think up ideas and try to make them happen, and deal with the failures and blows that come with that. I pay Caroline Calloway the money I earn from my own creative pursuits each month because I enjoy knowing that some of that money has made its way to Caroline for her to spend on orchids and paint and wine with her crush and that little bit of my energy has helped her continue with hers.

So yeah, stop being so nasty to Caroline Calloway pls.

-Dana