I was going to call this one either "The One with a Fall From Grace" or "The One with the End of a Love Affair" or "The One Where I Lose the Love," and then I realized that both of those would make it sound like I was on either side of some kind of extramarital affair or getting a divorce or something, which I'm not.
When I wrote this post, I meant everything I said. Everything about the love I've always had for everything in the Jane Pratt universe, and how Jane magazine was the raison d'être for most of my adolesence and childhood. How I looked up to Jane, and how it was my absolute biggest dream to be able to work for her.
You know how, at some point, you realize your parents aren't perfect? You realize they're not perfect, and it's so effing disappointing?
The last two days have been like that for me.
You might accuse me of being melodramatic, and that's cool, but the xoJane community was like. . .my people. Smart, snarky people with opinions beyond "OMG, I totes need the new Marc Jacobs bag or I'll, like, LITERALLY DIE." It is the damn hardest thing in the world for me to make friends, so when I find a community, whether online or in the 3-D world, that I can connect with, it's huge. And I had that. But I don't think I do anymore.
Without getting into the logistics of all of it, I think it all boils down to the fact that I've realized that Jane herself. . .doesn't really care. She cares about the money, and she cares about the clicks, but she doesn't much care about the community of people that, for the most part, were brought together because of the common interest of Jane or Jane's big sister, Sassy.
She has always been known for her celebrity name-dropping (Did you know she's former lovers/ currentBFF with Michael Stipe? And that she slept with Drew Barrymore? And that she's also BFF with Courteney Cox? We all know. Because she talks about it ad nauseum.) but apparently, that also bleeds over into the not-so-celebrity people, the chosen few that are part of the in-crowd. The ones that get fawned over and acknowledged like they were real-life best friends.
Am I jealous? That this woman I've looked up to for literally more than half my life won't respond to my (obviously hilarious) life observations and (thoughtful) questions? A little, yeah. But it's so much more than that.
I can't have respect for someone who looks the other way while her beauty director and "health critic" gets herself so wasted on drugs every night she writes long, rambling diatribes about her "rock and roll" lifestyle (with a beauty product recommendation thrown in for good measure at the end) and who, after the aforementioned BD/HC quits (Yeah, quits. Wasn't fired. Quits to write for the Vice website.) hires a new Beauty Editor that her readers and commenters literally, literally BEGGED her to not hire, for a miriad of very valid reasons. And when she hired her instead, just basically said, "I love her and you need to be nice!" without addressing any of the reason why the readers, the REASON for such a site, were so against it.
I'm tired of the constant tearing-down in the comments section and the authors' own Twitter feeds. I'm tired of being a part of a community where, a year ago, I felt like I was an active part of and that I was being heard as a person, and now, I'm just not. It doesn't help that Disqus has added a "downvote" option and that it's anonymous. People are just mean. I think facebook has been correct in not adding the "Dislike" option. That would get really ugly really fast.
So I'm quitting. I'm throwing in the towel. At the very least, I'm taking a hiatus. Maybe I'll be back. If I see Daisy Barringer tweet that she's written something, I'll probably read it, but avoid the comments section. There's enough negativity in the world, and I'm working hard enough to keep it out of my own life. It's hard, you guys. I'm not naturally a glass-half-full kind of gal, but I've legitimately been trying harder to not. . .drink the Haterade.
Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "Damn, Sarah. You're too sensitive. You're making a big deal out of nothing." Maybe that's your opinion, and that's cool. For me, it's like I've just lost my best elementary school friend. It's just not fun anymore.
I guess this means I'm going to need to find real-life people to talk to now. God help us all.
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