Young women- particularly in their teens and twenties -struggle with invisibility because of relationships, work status or temporary circumstances. You can be the most beautiful, healthy, clever girl to walk into a room full of people but if the one guy you love 9or think you do) doesn’t give you validation, you feel invisible, worthless.Yep, we’ve all been there.
Your achievements go to the back burner because you are alone or because that one person you love, doesn’t. When you are going through that process, anxiety can feel like the enemy not even a gladiator can beat.
As time goes by and you look back on the years wasted feeling invisible and searching for the validation of someone who was not even worth it in the first place, you realise it was all part of growing up. We get over it but we do regret the time wasted, time we could have invested studying, working , creating, or just feeling better.
If you are going through this process right now, there is not much you can do to change your feelings for the time being but if you are willing to change, then that is a step forward.
As you mature, you will learn to value yourself and the person you are. You learn that no one can make you happy except yourself. This is the premise of my personal short film “The Invisible Woman”.
I wrote, directed , edited and acted in the film, which was shot at my old university, Goldsmiths College, University of London . Enjoy the film and remember, if you are feeling a bit worthless today, stop and if you can’t stop, then at least remember that it is only temporary. It is just a state of mind.
One of my all-time favorite artists is Maria Callas. You could say she had it all, but the one thing she appeared to lack was a sense of validation. The whole world was in love with her voice, her effortless elegance, her beauty. However, Maria just wanted the validation of the one man who wouldn’t give it to her, Mr. Aristotle Onassis.
“You are just a larynx” he once told her. Unfortunately, Maria believed him. She loved Onassis more than she loved herself. During the years they were together, Maria gave up on her singing career while allowing Onassis to squeeze the life out of this delicate flower, infatuated with a man who out of the blue, left her for Jacqueline Kennedy.
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