Excerpt from You Tube Video OPI and China Glaze Haul
What an interesting report on npr.com today. NPR highlighted the new and disturbing trend of "haul videos". These videos of young girls displaying what they picked up from the mall get thousands of hits a day. With all of the media outlets out there these days it is a disappointment that it's other people's purchases that are attracting viewers. And full disclosure: I was one of these girls at one time. No, I never made a video but I once thought my life could change from one new purchase.
Being a teenager is tough, and it is hard to distinguish a burgeoning interest in fashion as self expression from the constant need to consume. After all, you need to buy something in order to wear clothes. But instead of being happy with whatever I purchased I always felt as if I needed and wanted more. Wanting one shade of nail polish went to wanting ten. And perhaps I would receive much complementary attention about said nail polish, but unfortunately that type of attention doesn't earn you anything tangible.
Despite the attention I received I would be home with 10 shades of new nail polish and no radical life change. Just colored nails. You have to be realistic about what a new product can do for you. It's fun to have new things, but it's not going to change your life. This girl and her viewers have lost sight of that reality.
