Fashioning A Career

No matter how much I tell myself that I watch TV to "relax," deep in my heart I know it's because I'm a total pop culture freak AND I get to call it "research," to boot. In the dog eat dog world of writing young adult fiction, there is no better way to stay up on the madness of pop culti things than through the great LCD screen into TV Land. It's all about doing what you can to further your career.

Reality TV has really taken career-enhancement to a whole new level.

My latest obsession, Project Runway. Perfect timing too because America's Next Top Model ended tonight. And yes, I totally knew that Nicole was going to win. They needed a good old-fashioned girl next door type to win after fierce Eva and exotic Niami. Nicole's bland-looking to me...but hey, what do I know?

I'm just a channel surfing pop culti fanatic obsessed with all things trendy, hip and insanely over the top ridiculous.

Now, tell me, why is practically every male designer on Pro Run flaming!?!?! Did the application for the show say: Must pop eyes excessively while exclaiming every word uttered?

Santino is my fave and by far the most masculine. His designs are savvy and fashion-forward. And truthfully, his scruffy look is quite sexy.

Now all I can say about Zulema's last cheeky design is...EW! I mean damn. The average model is probably a size 2 or something. But because Zulema's design was so short, the models butt hung out of the dress and all you could see was cottage cheese. It was beyond nasty.

You know you've broken new ground when your design makes a model's waifish body look fat and unattractive.

But the moment I loved was when Chole won the challenge and Santino came backstage, relieved that he hadn't been booted off. Clearly emotionally drained, he was still full enough of bravado to indicate that the only reason he hadn't won the challenge was because the judges didn't want to give him two wins in a row.

The camera pans to Chole's face and it's so clearly saying, Dude, fuuuuggg you!

Love that!

What I love the most is, I get to watch nearly ever profession make complete asses of themselves on television for a chance at success. Us writers are just too classy and cerebral for that. We'd never stoop to the levels of cattiness, backstabbing and downright sneakiness of wannabe models, designers, dancers, singers, corporate execs, chefs, reality "actors," or realtors.

Yeah, I said that with a total straight face. Knowing full well if they could make writing a book interesting enough to be on TV, every aspiring writing waiting on that first published book would be there, lap top in hand!

Alas, we're forging careers without the aide of cameras and confessionals.


Haute (and) Coutere,

Paula