Self-Love Is How You Change The World

True story.

Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash

“You’re so Eastern Europe,” my french roommate told me as we were preparing to check out a new night club in London. It was my satin white blazer that prompted the comment. I guess it was fair too: she was casually elegant in a black dress and black flats.

It was the first time in my life I felt it: being singled out for something I had no control over. Not the blazer, but the upbringing.

I wasn’t exactly hurt, but I was worried that the way I was different was so obvious. I’ve always wanted to be a world-class writer, you see, but I had a hard time believing this would ever happen because I was, I am, an Eastern European.

And now here it was again, my Eastern European-ness, showing up in the way I dressed.

That’s when I first started thinking about equality and how there’s always something — the color of your skin, where you’re born, your gender, sexual preferences, you name it. My thoughts flew around in my head for years, never really arranging themselves to form an opinion. “That’s the world,” I thought, “and I doubt you’ll figure out a way to fix it.”

So why am I writing this?

I read about Heidi Klum commenting on the fact that she was called a ‘white woman’ after an interview where she…