In a world where most of us spend a lot of our freetime doom scrolling on social media,
Hustle culture has been going on for a while now, but recently the posts have been more noticeable than usual. With March being Women’s History Month, I’ve come across so many articles highlighting the local girl boss and entrepreneur. It seems to be rare to come across an article that celebrates a “normal woman”. Even though hustle culture has been prominent for years, it’s only been as of recently that I’ve started to question its toxicity of the trend. I’ve begun to think, “Is this mindset of constantly being productive even healthy?” I took the time to interview a few college girls around me, those who are proud to focus on one thing at a time. These girls would be considered your average college girl, those who dont have 2 side business, or feel the need to become an influencer. I wanted to figure out if this narrative of hustle culture on tik tok reflects the reality of most women.
Social media’s everlasting perpetration of hustle culture is exhausting. Many young women in college feel unfulfilled when they compare their lives to ones that are constantly glorified online. After interviewing multiple college girls, the most common response to questions about social media’s effects on their outlook on productivity was the feeling like they’re not completing as “much as they should be”. “All I do is wake up, go to class, and complete school work. I feel like I’m not doing enough.” said Sarah, a junior at UNT.
Objectively, it’s insane that women who are putting in the effort to achieve a degree are feeling less than adequate. Going to college is a big deal! Pursuing a degree at a university is not an opportunity to do. It’s sickening that the media we consume daily nearly convince women that we have to turn our favorite hobbies into a side hustle. Within the past few years, social media has been equating success with constant productivity. It’s quite literally shoved down our throats that we should be a straight A student, work a job, have 2 side businesses while simultaneously running a social media page about these said businesses. Does that not sound exhausting to yall? With this being the norm on Instagram, it perpetrates this unhealthy narrative that is honestly unattainable. We cannot be SuperWoman!
Every girl’s definition of success at this stage of our lives all vary from one another. Some of us prioritize our mental health in daily life, others tend to prioritize their academics and grades. Honestly, we should be romanticizing this period of our lives! With these types of toxic ideals online, we should not feel guilty for taking one step at a time, and not feel pressured to prove our successes to others. “I wish it was normalized to just simply do one thing at a time.” says Leslie, a sophomore at UNT.
There are so many young women who are full time college students and work multiple jobs, and those girlbosses deserve to be celebrated on social media. It’s definitely not easy being a boss babe! At the same time, we also need to uplift the women who feel like they’re “falling behind”. During Women’s Month, all women should feel uplifted. Let’s redefine success on our own terms and shut out the toxic pressures on social media!
