Arabelle Akinfe

I  don't remember how old I was when I first used the virtual thrift store, Depop. It was either 2014 or 2015. I know this because I brought one of those American Apparel tennis skirts that you  just  needed to be classified as grungy and cool according to Tumblr. This was during the era of being obsessed with The Arctic Monkeys, The 1975s, or The Neighbourhood.  Ah, the good days.  When you could buy a £30 skirt for half the price at Depop.  Why Depop Kinda Sucks Aliexpress Resellers       Definition:  Sellers that buy clothes on Aliexpress for a cheaper price and sell of Depop for double. The description would state that the clothes "will take 2-4 weeks shipping". The pictures used to describe the pieces of clothing are usually a celebrity or Instagram influencer.          The reason they suck:  The 2-4 week shipping is awful. There's a chance the clothes will be of bad quality and most likely lo...

YOLO This week, during my scroll through Instagram's, explore page, I came across a post by the infamous Caroline Calloway. You know, the girl that famous on Instagram for going to Cambridge University. The caption of her selfie read  "Something I wrote in my diary yesterday: "What is the purpose of life? To be happy. If my ability to be happy is fundamentally impaired, does that mean that my life is fundamentally more purposeless?" A postcard for you from depression!"  Caroline's caption, along with my recent binge of Hulu's  Looking for Alaska  (look at last post), made me start to think about the meaning of life and I think I've cracked it! The few years I spent doing philosophy at sixth form taught me about Aristotle. A Greek philosopher with the longest (and most interesting) chapter in our heavy school textbook. He said, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” At the time I didn't questi...

Just like most people I’ve spent my quarantine on TikTok. Mostly observing and not actually making any because I’m far too anxious to throw-it-back to a song addressing how much of a ‘savage’ I am. No disrespect. The people who do make TikTok's are obviously more confident than me and look amazing dancing. A recent stubble on TikTok is if you’re the main character or not. I used to believe that we are all the main character of our own television shows that is life but as I watched Hulu's adaptation of John Green’s famous, 'Looking for Alaska', I have come to the conclusion that I am not the main character but maybe the Manic Pixie Dream Girl instead.  I first learnt the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl from a Youtube video talking about the movies 500 Days of Summer and Elizabethtown. Nathan Rabin said the MPDG "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach brooding soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adven...