Why I feel like Ugly Betty...

When I say that I feel like Ugly Betty, I'm not talking about looks.

For one, Betty isn't ugly - she just doesn't assimilate to the corporate standard of desirability. For two, she does a bit too much with the patter clashing, which is a valid reason for being mistaken for an ugly dresser at least. (I genuinely think she has some nice pieces, they're just put together a little, you know...)

Me relating to Betty Suarez has all to do with desperately trying to overachieve in the corporate world whilst constantly coming up on road blocks and the responsibilities of an ethic upbringing.

Whilst Daniel navigates corporate riding the coat tales of his family name, and Amanda gets to figure out who she wants to be in the world whilst being useless at her job (hilarious, but useless). Omg, now that I think about it, Amanda gets to be racist AND suck at her job, LOL! (this post is not about race, don't worry). Marc climbs the corporate ladder by strategically forming an alliance with Wilhelmina, fuelled by office politics and scheme after scheme after SCHEME. Christina's main worry is getting her designs seen after years of being in the shadows (until she gets caught up with Wilhelmina that is, and then her dying husband and all that. Things got pretty bleak for her, but she lowkey had a good run before Betty joined).

Betty deals with mourning the death of her mother; her dad’s deportation and former crimes; her sister’s inability to find and maintain work; her sister’s son - a young, impressionable teenage nephew in the house; her sister’s estranged baby father getting killed right after rekindling his love for Hilda and accepting his gay son; her boyfriend Henry getting his ex-girlfriend pregnant; and then the countdown to them moving to Tucson; Kimmie-effing-Keegan - her former school bully - trying to come for Betty’s job (the volume of my voice is raising with every scenario I write, btw), all whilst living in QUEENS?!!

This on top of finding her place and voice in the corporate office. Trying each day to be the representation of a race that is the ethnic-minority, under represented and unfamiliar in the work-place whilst carrying all the stresses and the strains of the house that you leave every-morning before facing the world - alongside the naivety that comes with it. It's just an extra barrier you know?

And though she's given every reason to have an attitude every single day and lash out at those that deliberately try to make her feel less than, and bring those stresses into Mode, she choses a brace-faced smile, treats everyone with respect, lets Marc and Amanda's fat-phobic, racist and classist remarks slide right off her back and she gets the (fucking) job done! She has something to prove and everything to gain.

Luckily my problems aren't half as ghetto as Betty's, but a lot of them do pull on the heart strings and bring in dark thoughts that cloud what has the potential to be an amazing day. Then one one day there's a respite from the turbulent thoughts and you realise that three-or-so months have gone by on auto-pilot, and your still far from the corporate goal that you set for yourself. The one where you promised to lock-in; to go the extra mile for, or even save up for. The flood gates are open and you're overcome by your personal storm.

So what can we learn from Betty Suarez?

• Her life experience made her the reliable one, the problem solver and the confidant to the Meade family empire!

• Through trial and tribulation, she did in-fact find herself

• Though she lived, breathed and ate work, she still found time for the things and the people that she loved

• She rose to every occasion. Prepared, underprepared, briefed or un-briefed, she was gonna give it ago

• She learner on the job and didn't let her mistakes overcome her

• She genuinely gave no effs about what people thought of her appearance, if she liked it, that was all that mattered

• She stood up for herself (eventually)

• She built and enforced boundaries over-time

• She always chose to do the right thing and not betray her morals no matter how immoral her opponent ( apart from when she pulled Kimmie's skirt down in the Mode cafeteria, lol)

• When her blessings came, they came tenfold and often in front of the people who tried to break her!

SO, in a world of Amanda's, Marc's and Wilhelmina's - I feel the most like Betty.

Maybe let's decode some of her outfits next-time?! - Okay byeeee x