Raised on rom-coms and the dream of a glamorous magazine job, I thought journalism would lead to happiness. And maybe it has, just not in the way the films promised.
I recently made the realisation that I think most young female journalists make. I think I have been radicalised. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it while it happened. Still, after being raised on a steady diet of romantic-comedy films and books about love, I think subconsciously I believed that journalism is the path to happiness. Hilariously, I still think that’s true.
However, why did every single film I watched when my brain was most malleable and squishy have a precocious every-girl who lived in either New York or London and worked at a magazine as the protagonist? And was I, a precocious every girl who moved to London to follow a crazy journalistic dream because of these films or despite them?
As the cold realisation dawned on me, I asked myself, am I actually a good journalist, or have I just been perpetually chasing the high I get after watching Bridget Jones for the 721st time?
Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it – pretty much every single popular romantic-comedy has a female lead who works in journalism. She could be in magazines like Andy from The Devil Wears Prada or like…Andy from How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. She could be a TV journalist like Bridget Jones or a blogger like Carrie Bradshaw. As I thought of more and more rom-coms like Never Been Kissed, Man Up, 13 Going on 30, When Harry Met Sally, even my all-time favourites The Holiday and 27 Dresses had journalists as main characters. It started to feel like my fellow journalists had a bit of a monopoly on the genre.
It can’t be a coincidence that me and my fellow TNF writers all love rom-coms. Sure, it’s a popular genre, but there has to be some kind of conspiracy behind why everyone in a rom-com is a journalist.
Here are my main theories: Self-insert, the everywoman, and the nature of journalism itself. And yes, we’re getting into my insano takes in a very sexy list, because who said journalism has to be boring?
Self-insert
It will not surprise you to know that some of our greatest writers and interpreters of love started out as humble journalists. Some of the greatest millennial takes on love come from Dolly Alderton, who was (and still is) one of my favourite voices in journalism to this day. Of course, you couldn’t discuss journalism without mentioning the queen of journalism herself, Nora Ephron, who brought us When Harry Met Sally, but also years of fantastic articles.
I think part of the reason so many journalists are portrayed in film, TV and literature is because good writers are writing the scripts, and if you’re going to get inside the head of a character, why not write them from a perspective you already know? So, it seems stupid, but of course, journalists are writing their characters as journalists; it’s easier.
The Every-Woman
The thing with the career I’m in is that you can have a niche, but there’s nothing to stop you from becoming a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Let’s be honest, it’s an almost impossible industry to get into, so that’s why my day job is writing about supercars, and I can’t even drive. You become a bit of a chameleon when you start out. You need to know a bit about politics, pop culture, sport, music, science and history. Journalists are kind of great to have on your pub quiz team. Plus, you have to be quite a chatty and outgoing person in order to interview people and get a good scoop.
Of course, you want a romantic lead who has those traits. You want a worldly, cosmopolitan every-girl who takes risks and is perceptive to new people to be your leading lady because it means that she’s instantly likeable and relatable. Omg, she has friends and is in her 20s? Me too!!
The Nature of Journalism itself
If you started a journalism degree based on the way journalism is portrayed in rom-coms, then I am sorry. I’m also sorry because this is totally me.
I saw the women travelling all over the world chasing a single story at the time, inexplicably affording a flat in zone 1 in London and having the rich and famous being charmed by your fun and flamboyant ‘not like other girls’ ways. The reality is incredibly different, you have like zero money, you’re constantly writing about five articles at once, and you live back with your parents in the Home Counties at the big age of 23. But importantly, I do commute into London two days a week, so it’s basically the same thing, right?
Journalism is sold to us by so many films as the most glamorous life of rubbing shoulders with the stars, but if you actually portrayed the reality of it all, sans sexy Colin Firth, you’d have a lot fewer people interested. Newer films and TV shows show the reality of the boy’s club it can be like Douglas is Cancelled, She Said and The Morning Show. When you get McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists involved and hate comments telling you that you’re a ‘stupid bitch’ on every article you write, the shine really does wear off. I honestly can’t wait for ‘Bridget Jones and the Fear You’ll Eventually be Replaced by AI’ to hit cinemas.
Obviously, rom-coms are not remotely like real life, and that’s ok, but if rom-coms got me in the door, the nature of what I do is what made me stay. No matter how hard it gets, I know that I am writing and inexplicably being paid for it, and that is the best thing ever for me. Ultimately, rom-coms about girlboss fictional journalists were written by the great, real-life girlboss journalists, and that’s what makes them so enduring.
So, if you don’t mind me, I’m off to watch 27 Dresses for the 500th time, #unashamed.
