Exactly! We all have hardships to navigate, it takes a special kind of self-obsessed to think your story is worthy of sharing with the public, let alone making money out of.
I think the reason Millie has rubbed me up the wrong way is because her story is like the large-free version of my own.
I suffered horrific abuse, it wasn’t just a few hurty words and someone who raised their voice and punched some walls boohoo. I was sleeping on the streets for weeks aged 13 before being fostered. I was so neglected that nobody even reported that I was missing. I’d left for fear of my life. I cannot even, for fear of triggering, retell the things that happened to me on those streets. The trauma I endured that, in comparison to the rest of my life, felt so freaking minimal it took me the best part of two decades to realise that that wasn’t actually normal and I never deserved any of it.
I had two kids young, really young, younger than her, products of abuse, one disabled, and yes sure, I ended up in council housing initially but it was a stepping stone for me. I decorated it on a budget and made it cosy and homely for my kids but at no point would it have crossed my mind that what I was doing was in any way spectacular and worth shouting about Jesus Christ, or that it was anyone’s business but ours what our life looked like.
Should I start a TikTok? I’m sure my now grown children would be thrilled to have their faces plastered all over the internet non-consensually alongside my tales of woe. At least they might get some discount on carpet out of it, that’ll make it okay.
I suffered horrific abuse, it wasn’t just a few hurty words and someone who raised their voice and punched some walls boohoo. I was sleeping on the streets for weeks aged 13 before being fostered. I was so neglected that nobody even reported that I was missing. I’d left for fear of my life. I cannot even, for fear of triggering, retell the things that happened to me on those streets. The trauma I endured that, in comparison to the rest of my life, felt so freaking minimal it took me the best part of two decades to realise that that wasn’t actually normal and I never deserved any of it.
I had two kids young, really young, younger than her, products of abuse, one disabled, and yes sure, I ended up in council housing initially but it was a stepping stone for me. I decorated it on a budget and made it cosy and homely for my kids but at no point would it have crossed my mind that what I was doing was in any way spectacular and worth shouting about Jesus Christ, or that it was anyone’s business but ours what our life looked like.
Should I start a TikTok? I’m sure my now grown children would be thrilled to have their faces plastered all over the internet non-consensually alongside my tales of woe. At least they might get some discount on carpet out of it, that’ll make it okay.
She’s 20. Her children are under two years old. Being fertile and keeping two small children fed and clothed on benefits, grifted cash and freebies for less than two years isn’t “inspirational”. Is the bar really this low?
Come back in 25 years when your kids are well-adjusted adults with aspirations and careers and tell your “inspirational” tale of how it started. For now, she’s nothing more than a big kid with a sob story and a couple of rugrats and a house built by taxpayers paid for by taxpayers. This is the beginning of her story, not the end of it. She’s got their entire lives to navigate yet before we can say she’s inspirational. Her kids might become serial killers yet.
I’m sorry, who’s taking life advice from someone who’s barely finished puberty?
