Gala Darling, look at her new Betsey Johnson stuff, got her “boot camp” started up Wednesday. For just $100 you can receive awesome advice like this:
Create Disneyland in your heart every day…
You can morph the mundane into the magical with only a small change of perspective. Make breakfast a luxurious event, send emails with a smile (the receiver can feel it!) & make an effort to welcome the beauty of life — which exists all around you — into reality.
To be fair, the 100 bucks gets you access to her forums and some mp3s, so I can totally see how that would be worth it. I’m not trying to say people shouldn’t seek ways to be happy, but doesn’t it seem a little ridiculous in this economy to give some internet charlatan 100 dollars to instruct you to buy fresh flowers for yourself? That’s not self-improvement self-love, that’s advice I read in Marie Claire 3 years ago.
I really don’t understand why anyone would pay that kind of money for someone to say ‘you have to like yourself before you’ll be happy! let in the positive! only see the beauty!’ These aren’t new revolutionary concepts, these are all things that have been in every women’s magazine since 1962. I guess some people need to be told these things, and are willing to pay to hear it from Gala Darling. The whole thing is just so odd to me.
I really dislike that photo. I don’t know why
Blue foam(?) slippers
You can almost see vag
Fuzzy blue earmuff hat? In October?
Forced nonchalance
Sunglasses indoors
Awkward pose
Take your pic.
I don’t even think that is a recent pic. She’s been dressing for attention for several years so who knows how old this one is.
Yeah, that’s definitely older — she hasn’t done the Manic Panic hair colors in a while now.
Oh that’s right. She’s been sporting that fried blonde mess.
Gala Darling said in an interview that she dyed her hair blonde so that companies would sponsor her more. Cause being more mainstream gets her more money and that’s all the bitch cares about obviously.
Seriously? If anything, she looks worse. At least with the pink/blue/purple hair, she could almost pull of those outfits she wears.
I’ve noticed she’s been covering up her tattoos a lot more too — I wonder if that had anything to do with it as well.
” She’s also dyed her hair platinum blond, to show corporates they can “take me more seriously”. Umhum that’s what she said in fabulous life of gala darling article. Corporate whore, shilling for any fucking company. Not long ago she posted a vodka video ad in a post because the brand paid Gala Darling to. God.
lol. I guess I didn’t want to really look at it long enough to analyze it, but it’s so ‘look at me, compliment me, I am SOOOO different and gorgeous and confident!’
plus the near vag and breast shots are just. yeah. not tasteful.
Yeah, that photo is all sorts of wrong.
OT but this is hilarious: http://www.anthroparodie.com/
That is amazing.
!!!!!
Hurrah!
The “Jenga-Inspired Sofa” is my favorite.
There is an Anthropologie fairly near my house, and my huscat refers to it as “the smelly store.” He’ll be all “Oh, I parked about a block and a half over from the smelly store” or “I hear they have gluten-free pizza at the place across from the smelly store.”
hah! Love it.
Anthropologie is the dumbest store. I wouldn’t pay those prices unless it was actually deisgner clothes/investment pieces, not crap produced by the company that owns urban outfitters.
Plus nothing fits my “slutty 80s goth” aesthetic.
Their overuse of fragrance actually makes me feel ill when I step inside. I get headaches and nausea. Even if it didn’t make me physically sick, I would hate the smell. It reminds me of the potpourri my parents used to dump in a basket and put in the bathroom when guests came over. The combination of dead flowers and panty liner smell — ick.
I used to read her blog and now I cannot stand her. She comes off as so self absorbed, it’s ridiculous.
Same here! I used to really enjoy her site. It’s ridiculous how much it has changed. She produces almost zero original content now–it’s all ads for her pay-to-love-yourself schemes or sponsored posts.
Her goal has always been to become her own brand, and I think she’s succeeded in that. She’s not a person anymore; she’s a product. It’s really sad.
I totally agree. I got sick and tired of seeing photo after photo of her and endless ads for her “book.”
She recently got married and I think its so she could stay in NYC and continue living her lifestyle without working. It is really sad.
Gala is the total opposite of what an empowered independent woman should be, the type that she tries to sell herself as. disgusting darling.
Yeah… I’m leaning more and more to this as well. I never really cared that she was a total shyster as long as she posted interesting content in between her “Love yourself!” and fake “Oh girl~” advice columns (Hey I READ BLOGS FOR ME! XD suck it internet) But now it’s all radicle self delusions all the time :(
Similar to the “Just read Jaclyn Day’s ‘Reader Requests’ posts instead of paying the Style Mentors $65″ argument, you could say, “Just read Jaclyn Day’s ‘Inspiration’ posts” for this bullshit. I think its funny gomi posted this today because Jaclyn wrote a really nice post today about letting yourself off the hook in a very self-improvement/self-help kind of way today that keeps it real instead of trying to make everything sunshine and lollipops.
I think the reason Gala and her dreams and hugs crap offend me so much is because it is well known she’s from a wealthy family and hasn’t done a days work in 6 years. She decided to come to NYC and be “famous” and when moms and dads (and whatever boyfriend) are footing the bill, it’s easy to go “you just have to be POSITIVE to reach your dreams! just be happy and the universe will give you whatever you want! just think about beauty and you won’t have to work hard to reach your goals!” It’s just so irresponsible to make girls think they can just show up in Manhattan with a pink laptop and smile in their hearts and live the Betsey Johnson life like Gala.
Agree. I think if you can love yourself without having to be positive all the time you will be much stronger for it. She is just setting people up for feeling worse about themselves for not being able to maintain an impossible amount of positivity about shit that stinks.
Yeah, that’s what really pisses me off about that “live life like you want to!” BS. it’s easy to live like that when you can always fall back on your parents’ money. Most people, however, actually have to work so they can eat and feed themselves. Living a glitter life or whatever doesn’t pay shit. And someone has to do shitty jobs because they’re necessary for the world to function. We can’t all be magical princesses in tutus or whatever.
Gala Darling has not once acknowledged how privileged she is. She lies so hard about her web stats which anyone can check online and gala claims she makes $100000 a year I call bulshit. A few blog ads and deluded readers that buy her radical self love workshop do not add up. Trust fund and living off boyfriends do.
Someone (sorry, can’t remember who) said in the Style Mentors thread that people who paid for those services were more likely paying in the hopes of striking up a friendship with the “consultant” than they were for actual advice. Seems pretty right on to me, and probably even more so in the case of Gala. At worst, the people who pay for these things are delusional and exploited. At best, they’re other bloggers looking to network, get on board with being international playjerks, whatever.
I don’t know why, but I just don’t trust Gala Darling to give me advice about how to ~~radically love myself~~~
Indeed! Someone who’s entire self-esteem is dependent on the validation of faceless internet people is not who I would take advice from. She would suffer massive depression if she had to go one month without posting carefully selected, heavily photoshopped pictures of herself up for fangirls to fawn over.
I used to maybe like 1 out of every 5 articles she posted (when she still posted articles a few years back). The one that just made me snap was she posted a photoshoot of her in lingerie. It was so desperate, and SO POINTLESS. And she tried to say it was women empowerment because she was exposing herself or something. Uggh–it was so just gross and mental. I mean I knew she hated herself and needed lots of attention, but I just couldn’t anymore.
I only casually browse her website, but there is a really phony element to all of her posts. I think her wedding post in which she is genuinely smiling is the only time I thought she was a real human being. It’s kind of naive to tell people to always be happy and make people smile when real shit is going on! Real shit shouldn’t consume your whole life, but telling people to smile when sending an e-mail is eye-roll inducing.
I wholeheartedly agree that she seemed like she kept her wedding remarkably simple and genuine. Her parents seem really cute.
Her wedding was totally cute and low key. It really surprised me.
Well they only had like 28 days to get legal, so not like she had time to plan the Disney princess blowout she most likely wanted.
She announced she was engaged and then a month later they were married. It’s a bit odd.
Green card issues perhaps?
That’s the consensus. She claims to have an “artist” visa or some nonsense that is supposed to be valid for two years, and maybe her parents managed to buy her one. But regardless that was obtained about two years ago, so yeah, most likely she told her rich boyfriend if they didn’t get married she’d have to leave.
in response to PP, Do these bloggers have to report all their money and gifts to the IRS? If so, she probably wanted to get married so she could legally charge for her self-help services. An ex sort of boyfriend of mine has an artist visa because he is in a band and he is not legally allowed to get paid for anything not music related.
So if the receiver can tell when I’m smiling, does that also mean they can tell when I am silently screaming at my screen? Cuz that would be awesome.
don’t look at me like that!!
If that’s the case, I’m fucked when it comes to about 80% of my work email.
I wonder when she’ll get to the part where she teaches how to have other people support you financially so you don’t have to work a real job and instead can spend your days thinking of ways to turn your life into a Disney fairytale.
She is so gross. And I can’t get past the fact that “radical self love” sounds like something you do with a lolipop and a vibrator on a crowded train while dressed like a twee Lady Gaga wannabe.
There is only one apt and correct response to this: Huh?
I want to send her a thousand copies of this:
haha. When I read that book I thought of GOMI
Oooh, this looks interesting. Did you like it?
Definitely. Barbara Ehrenreich is excellent. She talks about a lot of themes brought up on GOMI, but I especially liked her discussion of relentless positivity amongst women with breast cancer. If you don’t stay positive, you’re somehow compromising your capacity to get better, which is complete bullshit and just ends up making genuinely sick people feel guilty about being sick.
Sounds great! I liked Nickel and Dimed very much, will definitely read this.
I’m definitely checking this one out. Added it to my wishlist/library book list.
Barbara Ehrenreich rocks.
Awesome, I want to read this too! Enjoyed “Nickel and Dimed” as well.
ooh, i need to read this!
I bet you never thought you’d have that much in common with Julia Allison.
This is a brilliant book. LOVE< LOVE LOVE this book!
She really seems to have gone off the deep end in terms of the (lack of) content of her posts. Over the years, her articles have gone from tangible advice, to annoying product-shilling, to complete and utter incoherent messes.
I kind of wonder if she’s just doing a ton of LSD while typing randomly into WordPress. It would certainly explain how she dresses herself each morning.
Based on twitter hashtags, I think she only has three or four people who actually bought her $100 snake oil.
I saw a PDF floating around of one of her “worksheets”, which consisted of copyrighted photos she ripped from MAC and elementary school Q&A like “What are three things I can do today to make other people smile?”
Also, I think her incessant Disneyland mentions/Mickey Mouse ear hats are because she is trying to get free trips out of it.
I brought it up in the forum but her and Nubby Twiglet have got to let those mouse ears go already.
To be fair, when she wears the ears her nose looks smaller.
Yes! Radical Comment Love.
She’s like a living human-shaped version of one of those inspirational posters written with different-colored magic markers. You know the kind:
LIVE HAPPILY! SWING ON SWINGSETS. SKIP DOWN THE STREET! HUM A HAPPY TUNE. EAT JELLYBEANS AND GIGGLE! DON’T THINK OF AN ELEPHANT. LOVE YOURSELF! LOVE YOURSELF HARDER! WOO HOO! HARDER! COME ON, YOURSELF, FUCK ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT! MAKE YOURSELF YOUR BITCH! BRING IT HOME TO DADDY! YEE-HAH!
Etc.
Are you thinking of the SARK poster? Gala Darling is like SARK without all the actual grit and content. If you read SARK’s books they talk about all her dark stuff–like being molested by her brother. She talks about her ongoing struggles with trying to be happy and lays all her faults hilariously on the table.
Gala Darling hides all her issues and tries to type out her world as a big, sparkly, pink ponyland.
I just posted a SARK poster at the same time you wrote this comment.
Like that?
Yes.
I’m sorry this person was molested and all, but I hate these fucking posters like poison.
Hahahaha that was an awesome comment.
I seriously thought of doing a bunch of parodies of these “by Snark” because fuck, I was molested and I find the best way for me to heal has been by hating others.
I’m sorry you were molested. But, um, I STILL hate these posters like poison.
Gee.
I am a horrible person.
oh well shuck damn who cares
Totally! I guess her posters are pretty silly, but I love that woman’s books :) I can stand alone on this one.
That may be a necessity.
Much cheaper than $100. You can probably buy five SARK books at full price for access to one shitty forum to pursue your Disney dreams.
That is true
Halp, cannot stop looking at this!
teee heee both of these.
That’s my GOMI dance.
WHADDAYA THINK I EEEEEAM? DUMB OR SUMP’N?
I totally just said this out loud in her voice.
your username STILL gives me the lolz every time I see it.
this was in reply to stalker is scarving to death
I find it ironic that someone would talk about self-improvement while smoking.
I think that’s a lollipop? But yeah, she needs improved alright.
Nah, it’s an unlit cigarette. She used to use them as props in a lot of her early “fashion” posts, complete with a “do as I say, not as I do” disclaimer about not smoking.
Because nothing says sophistication quite like a cigarette you are too much of a wimp to actually smoke.
Glad she’s not doing blow-job corno.
I think she actually did smoke for a long time, she just decided not to light the cigarette in all her pics… She was living off a boyfriend at the time, maybe he didn’t allow indoor smoking. Who knows, it’s still ridiculous to have an unlit cigarette as a prop. For some reason it seems like it’s more smoking glamorization than just smoking the damn thing in the pictures. The lit cigarette just announces to the world that you smoke, the unlit one announces that you think smoking is a valid fashion decision.
Very good point.
gala darling is a chain smoker. yet another of the million examples of her hypocricy.