Life Lessons From Celebrity Hot Messes

These days, it seems like every celebrity is tweeting conspicuous things, spending time in rehab, serial dating, and getting arrested time and time again. Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan, the Kardashians, Rihanna—these are the women we grew up admiring. Today, their lives are quickly turning into giant messes that nobody should ever want to emulate. If they’re not setting a good example, to who are we, collegiate women, supposed to look for inspiration?

The answer hasn’t necessarily changed. Sure, there are better role models out there. Natalie Portman balanced Harvard and an acting career; Michelle Obama wants kids all over the nation to get up and move; Demi Lovato turned a struggle with depression into a campaign to make teen girls everywhere feel supported and loved; Carrie Underwood is happily married, and is still bringing home countless awards for her girl-power country music. These women set a fantastic example for girls everywhere that can’t be doubted. Unfortunately, these aren’t the stories the tabloids are highlighting. Even real news sources, like CNN and the Huffington Post, have sections devoted to celebrity news, or they allow their twitter feeds to be dominated with the latest star-studded happenings. Google News has more hits for the Kardashian-Humphries divorce hearing than for the latest fundraising gala attended by famous do-gooders. Did you know that the Michael Jordan Foundation just had a gala for charity, preceded by a two-day basketball tournament? Neither did I because the entire article CBS.com posted was a mere six sentences that didn’t even include what cause the money made goes toward.

The celebrities, who make bad decisions, tarnish their reputations and spend their billions without a care, are the ones who make the headlines—they can’t be avoided. And so we, as collegiate women, must adapt to that world and make the best of things. We have to find the lessons within the rehab stints and DUIs. Instead of teaching us how to be our perfect selves, these women show us what not to do. Young women can learn from celebrity mistakes.

So, what can we take from these women? From Amanda Bynes’ latest meltdown on twitter concerning a supposed eating disorder and overreaction to a salon worker for messing up her long blonde locks, we learn avoidance and the art of TMI. Revealing information that personal on the Internet is a huge, huge no-no. Kim K. teaches us that marriage is something you need to be really ready for, or it may be over in a mere 72 days. Lindsay Lohan’s once-gorgeous face serves as a terrible exposé for the trouble that follows when a nice girl gets involved in illegal substances. Rihanna and Chris Brown, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson and so many more famous couples are tales of desperation and sadness. Personally, I’m still rooting for both those ladies to show their true inner courage and leave their dirt-bag dudes behind. In the right light, these are lessons every real-world girl needs to learn today.

The world can be a terrifying place, and we girls need people we can really admire. And we have those, if we look hard enough. As for the women ever-present in the celebrity world, they’ve got some lessons to teach, too, and they’re important ones to be learned. Don’t be that girl—the hot-mess—and you’re well on your way to a happy, successful life.