The One Thing Love Island 2018 Is Missing

As per last year’s surprise smash-hit of a series, Love Island 2018 seems to have all the perfect ingredients for a cultural phenomenon – sunny Spanish weather, check. Enviable villa, check. Free clothes courtesy of Missguided, check. Witty Scottish voiceover, check. Major drama, check (looking at you, Adam/Eyal!). The one thing it’s missing is inclusivity, and sadly this is, in the increasingly body positive era that is 2018, a pretty vital ingredient to be missing.

All of the contestants are beautiful, thin, clearly spend a lot of time at the gym and quite possibly spend a chunk of money on beauty-related enhancements that us ‘normal’ viewers would rather spend on clothes and food. None of them are ‘plus size’ and they could all be models – as I’m sure a lot of them will become when their time on the island comes to an end – which just seems outdated and, at least to me, a real shame. 2018 has become a year of major social change and increasing inclusivity – from Me Too and Time’s Up to brand after brand – including Missguided – showcasing more ‘real world’ models and giving up airbrushing their websites. So, in the face of this growing wave of change in the fashion and beauty industries, I struggle to understand why ITV haven’t included a more diverse range of body shapes in their contestants – judging from the number of negative comments on Twitter regarding the lack of inclusivity and inability to see your own body shape on Love Island, it seems the audience wouldn’t have complained.

I believe one reason Love Island has been so successful because its the best form of escapism there is – it involves sun, Spain and the prospect of falling in love, a pretty much universal experience and therefore one that helps the audience relate to the cast. But as long as the contestants remain entirely stick thin and impossibly attractive, its relatability will be limited and so will the show’s lifespan. Hopefully, in time ITV will see the public wish for a more diverse cast, and will accommodate this with latecomers to the island – after all, the 85,000 applicants for the show can’t all look the same! Judging from the preview on last night’s episode of the new entrants to the villa though, I don’t hold out much hope…

What are your thoughts on Love Island 2018?

 

5 Things To Watch On Netflix (That Aren’t Riverdale)

Spoiler alert: I don’t like Riverdale. I mean, I only watched half an episode and didn’t really pay attention (sleep beats Netflix, always) but meh. I haven’t bothered watching it since, even though at least two of my friends are vaguely obsessed with Cole Sprouse and my social media has become inundated with photos of him/Riverdale stuff, but I have got into a few series lately…

Master of None

I binge-watched the entire series of this over the Easter weekend and loved it. Mega bonus that I only discovered it now and after a two-year gap, series 2 is coming out next month (how good are my psychic powers?!)

Girlboss

I only started watching this last night and so it’s perfectly possible that after binging six episodes I won’t watch any more, but I enjoyed what I’ve seen. It’s not particularly intense or intellectual so it’s good for when you’re in the mood for TV but not really sure what.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

I started watching this with my boyfriend because we were trying to find something to watch and I’d heard it was good. I can confirm that it’s good, but seriously weird, especially to begin with (after a few episodes you kinda get desensitized to the weirdness). It’s funny though, and the musical numbers (available on Spotify omg) are basically my new life goals.

Fresh Meat

I’ve actually not watched this in about two months, because I watched the whole first series in a couple of days when I was feeling really ill and now I can’t really face it anymore. HOWEVER, it was funny and just what I needed to distract me when I was feeling rubbish so I recommend it for some light evening viewing.

Designated Survivor

omg this series. my favourite. my new Jane The Virgin-level favourite. But it’s only new episodes weekly which is absolutely gutting. It’s about the US Capitol being blown up and the designated survivor being forced to become president and was interesting from the start, even more so now there are more twists and turns being added into the plot. Plus, they have actual former member of the Obama administration Kal Penn as both a cast member and advisor so it feels pretty realistic. Plus I just love Seth and Emily and everyone and I have no idea until I’ll wait till next Thursday for a new episode. Also fun fact: I like this series so much I broke the cardinal relationship rule and watched it without my boyfriend even though he first suggested it (but he did that with Prison Break so it’s okay).

Also, honourable mention goes to House of Cards which I’ve watched a few episodes of but not yet had a chance to get properly into. It’s good though, and I especially love the little asides to the camera.

Have you got any more Netflix recommendations??

A-Z: An Inventory Of My Music Library

For this week’s not-quite-Tuesday Tracklisting Tuesday’s post, I had a dig around in my drafts archives and found a post entitled A-Z of my Music Library. I clearly remember that this post was inspired by someone else’s post I enjoyed, but as this draft was about four months old, I’m afraid I don’t know who’s post it was 😦 (if this may have been your post, do let me know!) UPDATE: I think this was my inspiration 🙂 Thanks to BearNextDoor for letting me use it! As I have so.many.songs on my phone, if I’m faced with a choice, I will probably go for one I haven’t already mentioned on this blog, just for a bit of variety…Also, for the sake of your attention span, I’ll keep this list to songs that I actually own, rather than ones I love-but-am-too-broke-to-buy.

100 Days of Happiness {day 68} – Music

I had my monthly meeting with the jazz orchestra I’m a member of on Saturday. It was fun – Waitrose chicken caesar salad and popcorn for lunch, which was awesome. That took up pretty much my whole day, plus my sister left in the morning for a four-day Model United Nations conference near London.

In the evening, my parents were at a wedding, so I successfully burnt a chicken curry and then watched four back-to-back episodes of Bad Education, followed by one of Hannah Montana. Bliss!

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I also painted my nails my favourite colour 😀 (which has now run out :/)

An Overthinking Teenager

100 Days of Happiness {day 58} – A Truly British Evening

G-B-B-O! G-B-B-O! G-B-B-O! G-B-B-O! G-B-B-O! G-B-B-O!

This cry can be heard from all over Britain, as the winner of the Great British Bake Off 2014 was announced approximately forty-five minutes ago. Now, as I’m a kind, lovely person, I won’t spoil the result for anybody. But DAMN IT WASN’T WHO I WANTED!!!

Ahem. Angry reality television-induced shouting over.

Today I also had two tests (chemistry – the Periodic Table and Spanish – the Preterite Tense), which I think went OK (don’t quote me on that when I get 1/12 or something when I get the tests back next week though!). I got a bit more of my music composition homework done, which I’m happy about, and had an interesting conversation with my composition teacher about the Sibelius composing software, how some instruments are easier to write for than others and the different tessituras (ranges) of various instruments. In English, I started writing a poem about an elderly relative, which I’m very proud of.

I also had yummy homemade carrot and lentil soup for lunch and did an ‘interesting’ dance club with my friend…for her sake, I shall not elaborate any further!

All in all a good Wednesday.

An Overthinking Teenager

+Bonus points to anybody who can spot the additional widget on my sidebar, new today…

100 Days of Happiness {day 44} – Great British Bake Off

I have to admit, I can’t remember a lot from Wednesday, except for the Great British Bake Off.

*spoiler alert!*

Although I really liked Martha, and obviously wanted her to win, I think it’s amazing that a 17 year old studying for A Levels could do so well, with such comparatively less experience. Anyway, I’m now rooting for Richard…how about you?

An Overthinking Teenager

100 Days of Happiness {day 27} ~ Bad News Ain’t So Bad

Yay! The Oblivion EP by Bastille, including the new track ‘Bad_News’ which I preordered on my mum’s iTunes.  New Bastille music is always good, and there was a pretty funny q&a on Twitter later.

“@yrkshre: HOW DO U HIT THOSE HIGH NOTES IN OBLIVION 💘 #OblivionEP @bastilledan” I drank unicorn tears

— BASTILLE (@bastille) September 7, 2014

I also watched Dr Who (I found this episode pretty disappointing-what about you?) and managed not to hide behind a cushion!
I went to see my gran and uncle, which was fun, and got my fave waitrose ready meal for tea!
An Overthinking Teenager

100 Days of Happiness {day 26} ~ Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted

Today was my first weekend of year 10! Luckily, because we had only been back for three days, I didn’t have any homework.  *jumps for joy*
This meant plenty of time…for reading! I got through two books, one by Ally Carter and the other Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – HP is always worth a reread!
It felt brilliant to have no jobs,  no homework and just to be able to do whatever.  Yes, I know I’ve just had eight weeks of that, but it feels so much better when you remember what school feels like! In the evening my sister and I had free rein of the tv: cue X Factor! Watched Through the Keyhole for the first time too…it just seems a bit random?!?
What’s your favourite winding-down activity?

100 Days of Happiness {day 22} – Goodbye Summer, Hello School

Yesterday was the last day of my summer holidays. However, despite this awful tragedy, I did have a good time in town with my mum, visiting the opticians and buying presents for a newborn baby. The jam doughnuts we picked up from Sainsburys were just a lucky bonus 🙂 As an end-of-holiday treat, we had a veggie roast dinner for tea – nut roast, apple sauce, gravy, potatoes, veg and Yorkshire puddings. As a rare treat only seen at Christmas and occasionally Easter, this definitely made the back-to-school blues slightly nearer purple!

We also sat down in the evening as a family to watch the Marines programme currently on TV, which was good, and reaching 100 followers really brightened my day 🙂

What type of WordPress really makes your day? For me, it’s comments!

An Overthinking Teenager