A date with Sarah-Kate;
Kate’s home truths
OK, it’s official. I want to be Helen Mirren when I grow up. I’ve long loved her in the movies, but after seeing her talk about the L’Oréal and Prince’s Trust campaign to turn self-doubt into self-worth, I’m taking my fan-girling to a whole new level.
In case you’ve missed it, the French beauty giant and the British trust set up by Prince Charles to help struggling young people have joined forces to help promote confidence among the 18 to 30-year-olds.
As Helen (that’s what I call her now we’re so close) says in her empowering clip, which you can see on YouTube, everyone has selfdoubt, but it’s not ’til you’re older that you realise it’s not the end of the world. Or even the road.You just have to hang in there!
I bet there’s barely a person on the planet who hasn’t suffered from a crippling lack of confidence at some stage. And those who haven’t (I’m talking to you, Donald Trump) are not better for it.
Those low moments are when you learn to reach out and ask for help, quite often finding out in the process that everyone has been where you are. And as the nuns used to say, there’s safety in numbers.
If 99.9% of the population have all had a moment of wondering if it’s worth it and deciding that yes, actually, it is – then you’re in good company.
Helen even has a tattoo on her hand of two intersecting Vs to remind her that people can be as opposite as they like, but we all have the same value. Yes – we are all worth it!
Thanks, L’Oréal, I’ll keep buying your hair dye at the supermarket until I decide to embrace the platinum the way my idol has. Which will be in approximately 42 years.
Helen rocks it, but she has allowed herself to age with grace. She’s not hiding from the close-ups but letting us see her facial nooks and crannies just the way they are, the way she is.
“I’m not gorgeous,” she has been known to say. “I never was, but I was always OK-looking and I’m keen to stay that way.”
Now that’s the kind of goal a girl can hope to achieve. I personally am horrified at the number of young people currently getting Botox, lip fillers and invasive procedures to make them look ... like someone else?
We’re all OK-looking, aren’t we? Especially when we’re young? Which we sometimes don’t realise until we look back at old photos?
Old age ain’t for sissies, it’s true – but being young in this complicated world of ours seems tougher because the pressure’s greater and the wisdom that (thank heavens) comes with experience is yet to touch down.
What a fabulous place it would be if we all accepted ourselves as perfect pixies just the way we are. And accepted all the other pixies too. You’d want to live in a place like that, wouldn’t you?