Please forgive me for a moment if I start to sound preachy and maybe a little bit like my mother, but kids these days – they’re not like they were when we were growing up. I’m pretty sure every generation says this but I look at my daughter who is now 9 and I’m a little terrified of who her role models will be when she gets a bit older. We’ve gone through the Hannah Montana phase and now we’re onto the Selena Gomez phase and while both girls are super cute when starring in their respective Family channel shows, in real life they’re a lot to live up to!
I look at the young girls around me and see tweens wearing more makeup, high heels and worrying about their hair more than I do! And I think that’s a direct result of the young women who are role models in popular culture right now. Selena Gomez is absolutely adorable, but she’s never without a full face of makeup and hair extensions and designer clothes. Or what about those girls from The Hills – with all their designer clothes and plastic surgery. Then you have The Kardashian’s who are mostly famous for sex tapes and well – I’m not sure what else to be honest with you. That’s a lot of pressure for young girls to live up to. Things just aren’t the way they were when we were young. See – there I go again sounding like my mother. Sorry.
Now, when I was a kid (and I had to walk a 10 miles to school uphill through the snow...) our role models came with a lot less flash and glamour and a lot more quirky-ness and substance. Aside from The Goonies’ adorable Kerri Green and 80’s it-girl Molly Ringwald - Winona Ryder was the actress that every girl wanted to be like when I was young. Winona’s first major role came in a movie called Beetlejuice where she played a goth teenager. That’s right. A goth teenager. Not a blonde California beach babe who wore designer bikini’s and carried Birkin bags, but a typical, regular, quirky girl. And she was adorable.
Beetlejuice was one of my favourite movies of the 80’s! The Tim Burton movie was about a girl named Lydia (played so incredibly by Winona Ryder) who moves into a new home with her parents only to find out that it’s haunted by a recently deceased couple. The deceased couple want their house back and try to scare off the new owners and enlist the help of a ‘bio-exorcist’ named Betelgeuse to help them out. Hilarity ensues and there’s also a very awesome musical number that will keep you singing Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” and “Jump in the Line” for the rest of the day.
So before Winona Ryder got all ‘five finger discount’ happy, she was the ‘it’ girl of the 80’s and 90’s. She was the kind of girl that I grew up wanting to be like and it had nothing to do with her appearance. Of course I loved her look but I loved that she had her own identity and she was her own person. The girls that I grew up wanting to be like – the Kerri Greens, the Molly Ringwalds and the Winona Ryders were all talented young actresses who were more about the movies they were in than they were about the clothes they wore or the scandals they created. And they proved the goth girl or the quirky girl can still be the lead character in a movie and not just the sidekick or punch line.
I miss having those kinds of role models for my daughter because it seems that today the girls are more about style than they are about substance. Beetlejuice is TELETOON’s Big Ticket movie this Saturday, so sit down with your kids and let them watch a fun, kinda creepy (but in a good way) movie that will have you reliving your youth and showing your kids that not all movie teens are created equal.
Scene and Heard
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
More upcoming TELETOON Big Ticket Movies on
Saturdays at 7pm ET/PT:
- August 6: Cats and Dogs
- August 13: Horton Hears a Who
- August 20: Scooby Doo!: Abra Cadabra Doo
You can check out www.teletoon.com for more details.
This blog proudly sponsored by TELETOON Network
If you have kids, chances are you shop at The Children’s Place. I have 4 kids so needless to say I shop there more than I shop at pretty much any other store. They have cute clothes, fantastic prices and some pretty cool novelty items that you just can’t get at any other store (I’ve bought my daughter some cute monogrammed note books from there). Hands down they have the best jeans ever for my daughter! She is very tall and lean and the adjustable waist band is the best invention ever. Their clothes are also well made and stand the test of all 3 of my sons.
The Children’s Place has just hit 1 million fans on Facebook and to celebrate they’re having a big facebook party tonight! Celebrity moms Denise Richards (who just adopted brand new baby Eloise) Kelly Rutherford (OMG Lily Van Der Woodsen herself!!!) and Lala Anthony (Former MTV VJ turned actress/reality star) will be joining the party along with a handful of bloggers. And the only Canadian blogger invited to join the panel is me!!
I am so excited to join The Children’s Place for my very first Facebook party to help them celebrate hitting the milestone of 1 million fans, especially since I am a fan of theirs in real life!
So please come and join the party! All you have to do is ‘like’ The Children’s Place on Facebook and at 9pm est. join in the party. There is a special discount code already on the page as well as rumours of a lot of gift cards to be given away :) You can follow the party on twitter too using hashtag #TCPparty. Celeb moms, cute clothes, discounts and me! What more could you ask for?
Congratulations to The Children’s Place and I hope to see you all at 9pm tonight!
Scene and Heard
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
Entourage – The Final Season premiered last night and all of twitter was buzzing with excitement. And I must admit - I was too. I’ve watched Entourage from the start and I love all the characters and last season things got too stupid for that to be the end of it.
I didn’t like how last season ended with Vinnie and the porn star and E being such a little bitch and Turtle and the whole tequila thing, so I was happy that it was coming back for a short season to wrap things up. So I watched last night and I loved it, and I hated it. Why are all these boys all of a sudden like whiny girls?! Spoilers ahead – so if you haven’t watched it yet DO NOT read on!
So first we find out that E and James Caan’s son (I don’t know his character name but I do like him the best right about now) have kicked Malcolm MacDowell (again can’t remember his character name) out of their management agency and have taken over. So yay that E is finally amounting to something more than Vincent Chase’s whipping boy. Then we then find out that E and Sloan have broken up, which makes me happy because Sloan is so whiny. I mean, really gorgeous but so annoying. Again, yay for E for not being saddled with annoying Sloan anymore.
Cut to Vincent declaring ‘My name is Vincent and I’m an addict’ at Promises Rehab Centre in Malibu. This part makes me happy because of course Vinnie would be at Promises and of course there would be paparazzi and fans waiting for him to leave and of course he would sound like he was delivering a monologue when he addressed his fellow addicts. This part I love. Mostly because that’s really what it would be like when a star was leaving Promises. That’s about all I love about Vincent. Since when did he become the most irritating character on the show?
We find out that Vinny has been sober for 90 days after being arrested for cocaine possession and Johnny and Turtle are busy getting the house ready for his return. This is actually not as comical as it should be but since it’s Drama getting all obsessive compulsive about ridding the house of all drugs and alcohol I can buy it. But it gets old, fast.
The boys all gather to pick Vinnie up from rehab and E finds out that he's called everyone but him – so once again E gets all whiny and complain-y and pouts that no one called him. Boo Hoo. So over whiny E. We find out that Ari and his no-name wife have separated and she’s actually seeing someone new but instead of being typical badass Ari Gold he gets all whiny and pouty. I can take this from E, but from Ari Gold?! Ugh. I see a theme here and I don't like it. Also – way too little Lloyd in this episode.
Vinnie tells them all about his fantastic idea for a movie that’s kinda like the Chilean miners meet Lassie but in Romania (or something like that) and needless to say it’s a shit idea for a movie but no one will tell him because he just got out of rehab and they don’t want to upset him. This is the part that I hate – because it really just shows us that the Vincent Chase character hasn’t evolved one bit since the show started. While all the other characters have kind of evolved, Vincent Chase is still a spoiled brat who really only cares about himself. I really don’t like him at all anymore.
So the boys plan a last minute *dry* party for Vinnie to welcome him home (because Vinnie wanted a party) and in between Turtle trying to hook up, Drama freaking out over his ‘little brother’, E pouting like a little bitch over the engagement ring Sloan sent back in an envelope (and not a padded one either), Ari searching for a drink to drown his sorrows and Billy being the most annoying character ever, once again the only person I like is James Caan’s son (and I don’t even know his name on the show). Oh – and Turtle burned the house down.
So now, Entourage can start this final season with a clean slate. God I hope so – because I’ve had enough of the whiny bitches. And with only 8 episodes to wrap this up I hope they can do it right.
Did you watch? What did you think?
Scene and Heard
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
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