When scrolling through social media, most people display their lives to seem perfect. Celebrities, in particular, love to fill their profiles with their beautiful homes, clothes, cars, and families. Some envy these celebrities and others worship them. Stars with a large following can display the highlights of their lives. They also do hold the ability to use their platform to bring awareness to important issues in society that need to be overcome. In order to overcome a societal issue, first there needs to discussions about the issues themselves. This is where Chrissy Teigen comes in.Â
The most remarkable thing about Chrissy Teigen is her ability to use her platform to talk about her personal experiences in life. She does not just share the highlights such as food inspiration, her robe collections and cute pictures of her kids, Luna and Miles. She has also shared very difficult experiences such as the heartbreak of losing a child prematurely. She has spoken on dealing with anxiety and the importance of finding help. She has talked about undergoing IVF treatments when she decided to have Miles and the frustrating moments when it fails. She shared her experience with postpartum depression with no shame. These highly personal tweets and posts are a way for her to show her followers that they are not alone in their struggles. Her followers see her posts and they generate discussion about topics that are usually seen as taboo.Â
Chrissy is not just a former model or wife of John Legend but she is a personality on the internet that makes topics go viral. Although there are many women who should have more of a platform in media due to their work in politics, science, education, etc. Chrissy is aware of her power in society and media and uses it to help empower others. Her tweets and posts become news articles and viral social media discussions. She realizes this and makes sure to use her platform to share relatable experiences which inspires others to do the same. These discussions are steps that need to be taken first, in order to generate change.
Women’s medical issues are not talked about in society nearly as much as they should be. Systemic issues such as lack of representation in research can lead to women’s medical issues as being labeled as too complex to be understood and ignored. Women were not federally required to be included in medical research until 1993, leading to decades of being forgotten by medical researchers. Chrissy’s bravery in being so transparent about her medical experiences makes many silenced topics become trendy in the media. Fans retweeted and reposted her photos when she was undergoing surgery to treat endometriosis. This surgery goes from something that seems foreign and scary to the general public to being a common medical disease that many women suffer from. From searching this subject, Chrissy’s name appears which generates interest from her fans and lets them know that someone they may admire suffers from the same disease.
Women’s medical research is often underfunded. Funding for diseases can be correlated to adovocates that bring awareness to medical issues. Chrissy’s ability to open up discussions in such lighthearted and authentic ways has massive effects not just on her followers but in undoing the silencing of women’s experiences. She takes away isolation and shame that women may feel regarding their diagnosis while also being able to inspire medical doctors to do more research to understand and treat the female body.
Everyone has got to love Chrissy for her savage tweets that roast the former POTUS, Donald Trump. Luckily, Teigen is not blocked under the POTUS account any longer! Chrissy is not afraid to be vocal about her political opinions and everyone can take a rule from her handbook in being unapologetic about this. By sharing her views, she inspires her followers to go to the polls and practice their right to vote as well. Her viral opinions also cause people to research more about politics in order to make informed decisions.Â
Many of Chrissy Teigen’s famous recipes come directly from her mom, Pepper. Her mom is of Thai descent so Chrissy is always proudly sharing this culture with her followers. She is also consistently vocal about Asian American representation in the modeling industry and the media industry. She raved about the film, Crazy Rich Asians, and the importance of representation in society. She has also used her platform to share resources for being an ally to the Asian American community. This is especially important right now as crime towards the Asian American community has been rising in the past year. Having people of color sharing their experiences is such an important part of combatting racism and Chrissy never holds back when sharing about her life.Â
Although many are quick to critique the beautiful lifestyle that celebrities lead, Chrissy uses her voice and her social media to promote honesty. This is something that the online community is seriously lacking in so I would like to crown Chrissy as the, “Queen of the Internet,” for always being so authentic. I hope her ability to be open about mental health, medical procedures, representation, and recipes for amazing banana bread encourages you all to talk about real things in life. The highs and the lows. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Women’s History Month!
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