what Elle Woods taught me in my late twenties

it all started with an instagram reel.

i came across a short clip from legally blonde, and there was something about elle woods that immediately caught my attention. i didn't even know the full story yet, but somehow i already had the feeling that she was going to be the kind of character i'd love, and probably learn something from. so i watched the movie. and i was right.

i didn't expect a movie about a fashionable blonde going to harvard law school to leave me thinking about my own life at twenty-eight, but here we are.

confidence.

the first thing i noticed about elle was how unapologetically confident she was. she knows what she likes, she knows who she is, and she doesn't suddenly change herself just because the people around her don't take her seriously. that really stayed with me. at twenty-eight, i sometimes still wonder if i'm “enough” for certain rooms, opportunities, or dreams. elle reminded me that confidence doesn't mean believing you're better than everyone else. sometimes, it simply means believing you belong.

resilience.

elle gets rejected. she gets underestimated. she gets her heart broken. and she keeps going. she doesn't allow one person's opinion to determine what she can become. i think that's something i really need to remember in my late twenties, when it's so easy to look at other people's lives and feel like i'm falling behind. maybe not everything has to work out the first time. maybe sometimes resilience is just getting up and asking, what do i do next?

kindness.

i also love that elle is ambitious without losing her kindness. she doesn't need to become cold or cruel to prove that she's capable. there's something comforting about that. we can want more for ourselves without stepping on someone else to get there.

being unapologetically yourself.

but perhaps the biggest thing elle taught me is that i don't have to become a completely different person to become successful. elle doesn't stop being feminine. she doesn't stop loving fashion. she doesn't stop being enthusiastic or optimistic. she simply becomes more confident in who she already is. and maybe that's what i want to take with me into my late twenties. to grow without losing myself. to become stronger without becoming harder. to take my dreams seriously without taking myself too seriously.

funny how an instagram reel can lead you to a two-hour movie, and a two-hour movie can leave you unexpectedly inspired. maybe my instinct was right from the beginning.

elle woods was going to inspire me.