You are what people see in you.
We all know her. She’s the one whose best friends with this cute guy we fell in love with the first day of college. She’s the girl who’s always dressed up perfectly no matter if it’s midnight or 6am. She’s the one who entertains half of the dining hall on Monday mornings with her weekend stories about crazy parties and exciting flirts.
She is the one person we hate without knowing her. But at the same time she’s the girl we always wanted to be.
During my first month at Western, I developed some kind of knowledge of human nature. I learned to always recognize this one girl, even amongst a mass of people.
Internet dictionaries found a name for her; they call her “attention whore”. We’ve all heard of this notion, right? “Attention whore” is universal. We use it in Germany like they use it in Turkey. They use it in France like they use it in Italy. There is no translation. Wherever you go, people will know what you’re talking about when you call someone an attention whore. Because attention whores exist everywhere, no matter how far you travel.
Though, it’s only here at a US college that I’m meeting them at every corner, in every lecture hall, at every party.
So, what exactly is an attention whore? Are they just girls who’d do almost everything to get attention or is there more about them? After all there must be some kind of reason why girls become attention whores.
The one moment where you can see an attention whore’s real personality is when she’s abandoned by a boy, when she’s left behind. In this case she will easily loose her positive, charming appearance. She might become quite, she might cry, she might start a dramatic scene. Because evidently an attention whore can’t live without attention, like a mermaid can’t live without water.
Why are they called “whores”, anyway? After all these girls are just looking for affection, for love. They want the very same out of life that we all want – they just want it a bit more.
I guess a bit more is still okay, it’s still healthy. It gets dangerous when girls end up defining themselves completely through others. Because if one day, even if it’s only one minute, there is no one left at their side then life stops making sense for them.
You are what people see in you – that’s the message extreme attention whores live by.
Let’s be honest; in a way we envy attention whores. They have a life full of fun and intense experiences. They are always surrounded by lots of people and everyone, at least every boy, seems to love them. But after a while, permanently begging for attention becomes a lonely profession.
Because if you let people tell you, who you are, then you’ll never find your true self. Let’s all tell this to our own little attention whore who’s living deep inside each of us.
Editor: Katelyn Kivel