Dollface on Hulu, were you talking to me?
When I was 13, I genuinely thought that being 30 was that shiny age I would have everything figured out. I would have the house with the white picket fence, host fancy dinners, have a signature drink, have a perfect relationship and many, many friends, and drive a very nice car to my very fancy job! Let's all take a moment to laugh together!
I've heard many stories about your 30s being the best decade of life, and honestly, I am holding onto that. Turning 30, for me, brought about rediscovering myself and identifying the career path I want to pursue with confidence and self-reassurance. It's been an interesting journey. I couldn't help but realise how relatable the comedy series Dollface on Hulu was and constantly felt like it was directly talking to me.
So season one was working around Jules (Kat Dennings), who has just come out of a long term relationship and is reconnecting with her old friends, Stella (Shay Mitchell), Madison, and Izzy (Esther Povitsky). In season 2, the four young women start coming to terms with the idea that they are getting older and aren't sure what comes next and how they got there, or if they will get there. Although the ending of season two has things come together for the young women, there is a bit of a rollercoaster with all the changes they experiences. I can't begin to talk about how many things I found relatable.
Single like a pringle!
The lockdown in Shanghai was like a rude awakening of my singleness. Making meals for dinner has really just been touch and go when cooking for myself, just like Jules and Madison in episode one. Others have date nights with their partners, raising children between online meetings! The FOMO to have someone else have to figure out what we are having for dinner for once would be really nice.
Creating space for each other in friendships
Getting older doesn’t automatically mean growing apart from your friends, but it happens. As the Cat Lady (Beth Grant) tells Jules, you won’t always figure out where you’re meant to be if you worry too much about not leaving your friends behind. Jules and Madison experience this growing pain as the former’s career take off and the latter hits a snag. They each have to learn how to communicate better and stop assuming they know what’s best for the other.
Girl, leave that dead end relationship
Yes, even the ones that look good on paper, the ones that feel comfortable, and the ones that seem like they would be perfect if only 500 things didn’t keep getting in the way. Relationships are complicated and take work, but no one should be the only one working to make things work, as Jules was with her love interest, Wes. The latter just couldn’t move on from his ex despite saying he wanted to. Cue the red flags!
You gotta dip your feet into the water
So Jules' was the only one to not have a vision board for the longest time. Funny! She had just been existing, which is almost like some mechanism whereby if I don't have plans, I don't have to be disappointed when things don't happen. Winning! But no, it's not. There's no award for playing life safe on the sidelines, and regret sounds 10 times worse than accepting failure. We never learn unless we try, and if we fail, we learn from it.
…and it’s okay if things don’t go your way
Madison is an uptight PR expert who plans for everything. Her life is playing out exactly as she planned, but there’s one curveball she didn’t anticipate. Her boyfriend, Colin, who she begins dating secretly in season 1, is married. When she learns that he lied to her about their marriage status, Madison falls apart. But even though things weren’t going as planned, she still managed to pick herself back up and keep going. We always try to plan for the future, but nothing prepares us for the inevitability of things going differently. Being able to bounce back from something like that is an actual test of character and something we’ve all once had to do.
We all have a path, sometimes we just have to pave it for ourselves
Stella is the party girl of the group, who notoriously ends up in wild situations with celebrities and is a freelancer who doesn't hold a job for very long. However, many don't take Stella seriously, including her friends and her own mother. Wanting to take control of her life and future, Stella applies to business school on the east coast. Eventually, she gets an internship in corporate finance, but it doesn't take long for her to realise that this was not a fit for her. She meets Liv (played by Lilly Singh) and comes up with the best way to incorporate her talents in a way that's true to her – opening a bar for women. While still maintaining her sparkly personality, she establishes herself as a successful entrepreneur and a career woman. While this isn't the path that business school had for Stella, she managed to create her own niche in the industry, something we can all aspire to do.
