Do Women Really Want to Be Rescued?

Still from Sex and the City © HBO. Image via Vogue México.

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

I've been rewatching Sex and the City, and I've arrived at an age that makes the whole experience unexpectedly amusing. I'm 32 now. Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte were around my age when the series began. Samantha was a little ahead of them, in years and in just about everything else. I used to watch these women as though they had reached some distant stage of adulthood where you owned good shoes, knew exactly who you were and had developed a reasonable understanding of men. Watching them now, I realise they had the shoes. The rest was very much a work in progress.

Under the Tuscan Sun: Maybe the Happy Ending Was Never the Man

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

I went on Netflix looking for a film. Preferably something pretty, comforting, and unlikely to make me question my entire approach to life. Tuscany seemed like a safe choice.

Beyond the Post: What Working in Digital Marketing Has Taught Me

Everything Else · The Lori Diaries

I used to think being good at digital marketing meant coming up with a nice idea, designing something that looked good, writing a caption, and making sure it went out on time. All important things, of course. But the longer I work in marketing, the more I realise that publishing the post is often the smallest visible part of the job. There is everything that happens before it, everything that happens after it, and a surprising amount of time spent trying to understand why something that made perfect sense in my head isn't working quite the way I imagined.

Taylor’s Most Dazzling Era Yet

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

Some people listen to a new Taylor Swift album and move on with their day. I listen, replay, overthink a line, change my mind about a song, and somehow end up with enough thoughts to fill an entire blog post. So, naturally, here we are.

Energy Vampires: Who Are They and How Can We Protect Ourselves?

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

There is a particular kind of tiredness that has nothing to do with how much sleep you've had. It happens after a phone call that goes on longer than you wanted, a coffee where you barely manage to finish a sentence, or a conversation you spend most of trying to keep someone else happy. You get home, put your things down, and realise you feel strangely relieved that it's over. You care about the person. You might even love them. So why does spending time together leave you feeling as though you need to recover?

The Disney Myth: Do We Need a Prince, or Just a Nap?

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

At 30, I still believe in a little Disney magic. I like the dresses, the castles, the music, and the reassuring idea that somewhere in the middle of life's chaos, something wonderful might happen. What I'm less convinced about is the amount of effort some of these women put into finding their happily ever after. Snow White survives a murder attempt. Ariel gives up her voice. Cinderella has to flee a ball before midnight. And Aurora? Aurora takes a nap. I realise this is an incredibly unfair way to summarise four fairy tales, but I can't help noticing that Sleeping Beauty might have the most appealing schedule.

Cinderella and the Part They Leave Out of Happily Ever After

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

Disney's Cinderella turned ten just a few days ago, which gave me the perfect excuse to revisit the blue dress, the grand staircase, the romantic music, and a prince who looks like Richard Madden. A decade later, I'm still completely willing to believe in a little fairy-tale magic. But watching it again made me wonder about one part of the story I hadn't thought much about before: what happens after the glass slipper fits?

With Love, Meghan Netflix Review: Worth Watching?

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

I went into With Love, Meghan expecting a cosy little escape: a beautiful kitchen, something delicious in the oven, and perhaps a hosting trick I could steal without first purchasing an entire California estate. I came away with a more complicated feeling. The kitchen was beautiful. I just wasn't sure I wanted to stay in it for eight episodes.

Vida Verde: A Vegan Market, a Friendship, and a Little More Choice in Skopje

Places & Plates · The Lori Diaries

I went on Instagram for vegan recipes and, somewhere along the way, found a friend. Then that friend went and opened a vegan mini market in Skopje. So naturally, I have a few things to say about it.

Running Point Made Me Rethink What a Good Boss Looks Like

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

I started Running Point for Kate Hudson and stayed for a woman trying to run a basketball team while her family tests the limits of her patience. Somewhere between the boardroom arguments and the locker-room drama, I also found myself reconsidering something I used to believe about women at work.

It’s Nice to Be Nice

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

I have a soft spot for people who are nice for absolutely no reason. The ones who hold the door when your hands are full, say thank you like they actually mean it, or make a perfectly ordinary interaction feel a little less ordinary.

Thirty, and I Have Thoughts: 30 Lessons on Life, Love & Letting Go?

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

Thirty. It sounds like a number, but it feels like the epilogue to all the dreams I've dreamed in a hurry and the prologue to the ones that are still taking shape.

Hallstatt, Austria: A Fairytale Village and a €5 Cappuccino

Places & Plates · The Lori Diaries

Hallstatt is the sort of place that makes you wonder whether somebody built an entire village for the sole purpose of appearing on postcards. There are pastel houses pressed between mountains and a lake, a church steeple that seems to know exactly where to stand for photographs, and a ferry crossing that delivers you straight into the view you've probably already seen a hundred times online. I went expecting a fairytale. I got one, along with a very Austrian reminder that even a fairytale comes with a bill.

What You Didn’t See in My Instagram Photos

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

Somewhere on my Instagram, there's a beautiful photo from Salzburg. Glowing lights, a Christmas market, a cup of warm punch. Very charming. Very romantic. What the photo doesn't show is that my fingers were freezing, I'd waited half an hour for that drink, and I was one accidental shove away from losing my patience with the entire crowd.

Micromanagement: Why Is Trust the Key to Success?

Work & Culture · The Lori Diaries

Micromanagement. Even the word itself sounds a little exhausting, doesn't it?

11 Years of The Lori Diaries: Why Am I Still Blogging?

Everything Else · The Lori Diaries

When I first started The Lori Diaries, I had no idea how much it would come to mean to me, or that it would still be part of my life more than a decade later.

Love in the Modern Age: Why Is It So Hard to Find?

Life & Love · The Lori Diaries

Finding love these days can feel a little like looking for a needle in a haystack. Except the haystack is full of dating profiles, unread messages, and people who are “not looking for anything serious” but would still quite like to see where things go. I don't think love has disappeared. I just sometimes wonder when getting to know someone became a process that requires quite so much strategy.

The Idea of You: Why Is Her Happiness Everyone Else’s Business?

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

I was exhausted, stretched out on the sofa, and scrolling through my phone in search of something good to watch when Instagram put The Idea of You in front of me. Anne Hathaway, a handsome pop star, a romance that looked a little too good to be true. It seemed like exactly the sort of film I needed that evening. I pressed play expecting a lovely escape. Instead, somewhere between the flirting and the heartbreak, one line made me sit up and think: “People hate happy women.” It's a harsh thing to say. It's also the line that stayed with me long after the film ended.

Four Minutes Late, One Seat Away from Love

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

Have you ever noticed someone at an airport and, for about thirty seconds, imagined that you might be about to meet the love of your life? All you need is for the universe to assign you neighbouring seats. Preferably before one of you boards a flight to an entirely different country.

The Devil Wears Prada at 27: I Understand Miranda, But I Wouldn’t Work for Her

Screen & Sound · The Lori Diaries

When I first watched The Devil Wears Prada, I was firmly on Andy Sachs's side. She was young, ambitious, trying to make something of herself in New York, and working for a woman who seemed determined to make every day unnecessarily difficult. Miranda Priestly was the villain. Simple. Sixteen years after the film came out, I'm watching it again at 27, with some experience of working life behind me, and I'm surprised by how differently I see her. I understand Miranda now. That doesn't mean I'd ever want her to be my boss.