The Devil Wears Prada 2 Made Me Feel Weirdly Emotional
I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2 and it honestly made me feel a bit sad afterwards. Not because the movie itself was sad, I actually loved it, but because of what it represented underneath it all. I don’t even think the newer generation will fully understand why it hit some of us the way it did unless you worked in media before social media completely changed everything.
It reminded me of a time when media felt different. Yes, it was slower. I’d say it was actually harder in many ways. But there was so much more care behind everything.
I remember working as beauty editor years ago and putting a shoot together was an actual process. Not just taking quick content on an iPhone and fixing the rest later. Every single detail mattered. The lighting, styling, makeup, hair, the set, the angles, the mood, and the story behind it. Everyone involved genuinely cared about creating something beautiful. I’m not saying that today they don’t….I’m just saying we had to care a bit more because there wasn’t AI or extreme retouching to rely on, things had to actually be right in real life. Even though there was pressure in that, there was also soul in it.
Even writing felt different back then. When you wrote an article, you wrote because people were actually willing to read. You weren’t sitting there trying to figure out how to stop someone scrolling within the first two seconds. You weren’t constantly thinking about hooks, retention, click-through rates, watch time, algorithms, outrage, controversy, or whether someone with a five second attention span would get bored halfway through a sentence. It actually blows my mind that you have to think about people like this. You could actually say something properly through an article…not just wrap it up in the first five seconds..
I think that’s the part that made me emotional watching the film. It reminded me of an era where creativity felt more thoughtful, detailed, and intentional. Things definately took longer, but because of that, people respected the work differently.
Now everything feels immediate. Fast content, fast opinions, fast reactions. Nobody really sits with anything anymore. I’ve literally seen people scrolling next to me and liking Instagram posts without actually reading anything to do with the post….I’m talking, liking it so fast you wonder if they even looking at the picture.
When was the last time you bought an actual magazine? Do you remember standing at the magazine isle looking at this month’s new publications getting excited about which one to get? That’s another part of the experience that’s gone. Even captions have become too long for people, which is honestly crazy when you think about it. People consume information through headlines and emojis rather than actually reading or understanding something fully.
And I know every generation says things were better before, but I don’t even necessarily mean just better. I just think something got lost along the way.
There was something really special about old media. About magazines people waited for every month and editorial shoots that felt artistic. Also about writing that had personality without trying to constantly fight for attention every second.
I also think people in media now are under a completely different kind of pressure. Back then, there was the pressure to create something amazing. Now there’s pressure to constantly create something fast and I genuinely believe that compromises quality.
Even beauty feels different now. Trends move so quickly that nobody even has time to properly enjoy anything before the next thing arrives. People are consuming content at such a high speed that nothing has time to breathe. It’s such a shame because I think there are probably so many brand releases that are actually good but gets cancelled or pushed aside so quickly that it doesn’t get the love it deserves.
Watching the film reminded me how much I miss depth in creativity. I’m talking about real effort. It also made me realize why I still love newsletters and long form content so much. Because it’s one of the few places left where you can still properly explain and tell stories. And this community for example…we can connect.
I know social media has created incredible opportunities and I’m grateful for them because my career wouldn’t look the same without it. But I also think it’s okay to admit that some parts of the old world of media had something really special that’s hard to replicate now.
Another thing that feels quite sad now is that you can’t even trust if someone has actually written something themselves anymore. AI is doing the job for so many people and sometimes it’s used in the wrong way like using it to write for you. I personally think you can tell most of the time, especially if you know the person. All of a sudden they’re writing in this completely different voice and using words you know they would never naturally use in conversation.
What I find mind blowing is how obvious it becomes when someone who has never actually written before randomly becomes this incredible writer overnight. I’m not exactly amazing myself, but part of being beauty editor meant writing articles. A huge part of my early career was writing published content, so I have some experience. I’m not saying unless you have experience you’re not a writer. Anyone can be a writer, but it seems like everyone is an amazing writer since AI came about.
Another thing I find so interesting is that over the last couple of years I’ve seen more and more comments on my YouTube videos saying that I talk too much. And before anyone says don’t take offense….I really don’t. I have very thick skin and don’t get easily offended, but that’s not the point. Seeing these comments confused me for a while because if you actually know me in real life, you know I’m not someone who talks a lot. I’m actually pretty reserved. Once I know you properly and trust you, I definitely talk more, but even then I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who constantly talks.
After thinking about it I realized what people actually meant. It’s not really that I talk too much, it’s that we now live in a world where people are used to consuming information so fast. They want the answer immediately and I wasn’t doing that for them.
My channel has never been built around fast content. It’s an educational beauty channel and the whole point is to properly explain why you’re doing something, otherwise it wouldn’t be educational. And the reality is, you just can’t properly educate someone in ten seconds.
A demonstration without explanation only teaches a fraction of what a full talking demonstration teaches. Someone might be able to copy what they physically see, but they won’t truly understand it. And once you understand something properly, you can adapt it to yourself and that’s the difference.
I’ve kind of accepted that this is just the way the world is going, there will always be people who want everything faster now, but I also know there are still people who genuinely value depth, explanation, detail, and learning something properly and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate these people. I’ll never compromise the quality of my work just to fit into shorter attention spans.
I still believe there’s value in people who actually take the time to explain things properly. So I think that’s why I found the movie a little emotional…because it reminded me of a version of creativity that a lot of us were lucky enough to experience before everything became content.
If you’ve reached the end of this newsletter….WELL DONE!
