authenticity

To locate authenticity is to look shame dead in the eye first, which is a bone-chilling, lonely process. Where does it hurt to be you? You may not want the answer. I certainly don’t. But I know that my relentless willingness to face the worst of hardships yet a total embargo on looking within is hypocritical at best, especially when I’m telling you... See more

performative charm is never charming — it’s alarming, if anything, operating on a certain desperation to be liked, as though your entire world will crumble any minute

Covering up freckles, desires, or opinions, shame ricochets in different ways — there is, of course, that hollow footstep sound everywhere you go when you’re not entirely you . And who can blame you for holding back?

The risky, unfiltered joke you haven’t fully thought out, the undignified morning stretch upon waking up before you regain full... See more

Authenticity is a thing of real value. It’s what keeps people relevant long after the trend has burned out. It’s what builds trust, what gives weight, what separates the endless copies from the work that actually sticks.

. Brené Brown’s definition resonates the best: “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging.”

But there’s a line between imitation and authenticity. You can feel it in the way someone filters influence through themselves, instead of copying it whole. Real authenticity cant be copied. It can be attempted but everyones bullshit meters are way too fine tuned now adays which is a great thing.

The charmers are okay with underselling themselves if that means being honest, and by virtue of allowing themselves to lose in the eyes of others, they end up winning over our hearts instead. It’s as if they’ve got nothing to prove, the opposite of method acting.

I’d like to believe one’s public persona is largely informed by their private self — at the very least, it has to feel organic and true to us, otherwise we wouldn’t be so charmed and enthralled

A charming person is not one that glimmers but holds a mirror to your glow — a conversation with them makes you fall for them by making you fall for yourself.