I’ve always envied Carrie Bradshaw. Or I’ve actually envied the fact that she owns several pairs of Jimmy Choos while living in a New York loft off of a writer’s salary. When people used to tell me that being a writer meant I would be a starving artist, living in a cardboard box, or only eating beans and rice for dinner, I thought “How could that happen? Have you seen Carrie Bradshaw?”
Now, I digress. I would say that Sex and the City are severely behind the times from the fatphobic comments to the homophobic/transphobic jokes to the sex and slut shaming that the characters always fall back into. The one redeeming character is Samantha who lives by her truth and stands up for others, but she wasn’t even featured in the reboot.
As much as I believe the show to be problematic, it is also one of my sickest guilty pleasures. Imagine being single, romping around New York City at the height of your career with a solid group of girlfriends. Sounds like my dream. Plus their outfits are impeccable and I’m obsessed with how they always find time to hang out with one another despite their busy schedules and sexcapades.
So yes, I envy the lives of the Sex and the City characters despite their fatal flaws and horrible jokes. But specifically, I want to talk about Carrie Bradshaw. Or how in this day and age, we can all become Carrie Bradshaw.
In the era of social media, we can share our thoughts at any time whether it is discussing the newest fashion trends or detailing dating horror stories on your blog. This phenomenon always brings me back to remembering the sheer influence Carrie Bradshaw has had on generations. I call it the Carrie Bradshaw-ification of the modern day, where anyone can cause this sort of influence. I was thinking about this the other day as I was scrolling on TikTok and realized that we’re all her in a way.
When I say this I mean we’re all performing for an audience. Or at least I think we are. Our inner monologue is constant, but then add social media to the mix and we’re constantly being influenced by inner and outer forces. Anyone can give out fashion or dating advice, anyone can make a podcast, and anyone can start their own blog column. You just have to choose who, and what, to listen to.
To be Carrie Bradshaw, simply you have to just write from your heart and possess that “it-girl” energy within yourself. Whether it’s being the influencer or the influenced from social media, constantly taking up new advice or aesthetics, the true spirit of Carrie that I’ve been realizing is to just be authentic. I think myself and many others found her chic-ness to be so appealing because she was messy and made mistakes but still had this authenticity to her.
To be a true “it-girl” the way Carrie was in the 90s and early 00s, the key is to be real and live your truth. If there are three main truths she taught me it’s that: 1. nothing is more important than your friends, 2. dating and love is messy, but fun, so always be yourself, 3. retail therapy is legitimate. We can all be Carrie online when it comes to giving advice, sometimes unsolicited, or keeping up with the chic girl aesthetic. But the best lesson we can learn in how to be her is to be truly authentic.