WHY AMERICAN WOMEN ARE OBSESSED WITH FRENCH GIRL LIFE
Croissants by the Seine? Swoon!
Walking everywhere in your stylish, but not trying-too-hard clothes? Swoon!
Baguettes? Macarons? All kinds of wonderful cheeses? Swoon!
Eating delicious food, looking gorgeous and being unapologetically sexy?
It’s the French Girl Lifestyle and we American women want it!
Gosh, why are we so predictable and what makes this a nearly universal American woman craving? What are we missing? I’ve been thinking about it and have come up with this:
Croissants by the Seine? Swoon!
Walking everywhere in your stylish, but not trying-too-hard clothes? Swoon!
Baguettes? Macarons? All kinds of wonderful cheeses? Swoon!
Eating delicious food, looking gorgeous and being unapologetically sexy?
It’s the French Girl Lifestyle and we American women want it!
Gosh, why are we so predictable and what makes this a nearly universal American woman craving? What are we missing? I’ve been thinking about it and have come up with this:
BEAUTIFUL THINGS, NOT QUANTITY
When a French woman commits to buying something, she’s buying it for the long haul. It must be of good quality and be beautiful to look at. She’s buying it to use for years. My personal rule is if you are thinking about buying something and the best you can think is, “it’s cute”, put it back down. “Cute” is not good enough! Whatever you buy that you’re going to be looking at over and over again should take your breath away or you should be ready to declare why you love it so much. It’s not worth owning things you are not passionate about.
BEING A BEAUTIFUL YOU, NOT SOMEONE ELSE
French women are known for being beautiful, but are they any more beautiful than American women? Of course not! The difference is: French women always try to be their most beautiful self, instead of looking to supermodels or the Kardashians for how they should look. French women accept and love their very own, unique beauty. What you are seeing when you look at a beautiful French woman is the confidence she has in herself. American women could really benefit from looking at beauty from this viewpoint instead of constantly chasing a beauty they can’t attain without surgery… or even with surgery!
EFFORTLESS BEAUTY
The tousled hair, the barely-there makeup. How are they looking so good with barely anything done up? Because the secret is: they are done up.
Though their look is “effortless”, French women aren’t just stepping out of bed and onto the streets. Their beauty routines are just very natural, very subtle. They don’t wear garishly-colored eye makeup or do heavy contouring. They keep it simple and elegant, so that you see the person, not their makeup.
French women choose one thing to highlight. American women tend to think everything has to be highlighted. Perfect eyeliner wing! contoured cheek! Blush placement! Try this eyebrow trick! Wow, we really could stand to chill out a bit and start to focus on looking like normal human being individuals, not some hyper-perfected version of a celebrity. If our method was working, why would we idealize these French women so much? Obviously, “our overthinking it” method is not working for us.
(Disclaimer: I’d like to start by saying that when I say “French women” it does not pertain to ALL French women since I can’t say I know all of them personally. I am speaking of some mainstream French woman ideals. I also can’t say that every American woman wants to be French, but soooo many of us do deeply want these elusive traits. You can now proceed.)
DELICIOUS FOOD WITHOUT SACRIFICE
Every American woman knows that “French women eat whatever they want and don’t gain weight” and every time we read that, we shake our fists at the sky… HOW?? WHYYYY?!
So, American women, let’s think about the second half of that sentence, “without gaining weight” is exactly why we are so confused and jealous. French women are just eating what they want – unprocessed, deliciously-prepared food in normal portion sizes then they walk home from the restaurant they walked to. They aren’t even thinking about the “gaining weight” part.
It’s Americans’ sedentary lifestyle and large portion sizes of processed food that gives us the weight problem. If we took our average American lifestyle and moved it to France, we’d still have weight problems. It’s time we start preparing and enjoying meals prepared with care with people we love, instead of cramming large amounts of cheap nachos and wings down our throats (and then shaking our fists at the sky) wondering why the French have it so good. We can have it too but it doesn’t involve nachos. We just need to not accept garbage food.
We should be aiming to eat thoughtfully prepared meals in a non-rushed and beautiful atmosphere, even it’s once a week to start. After a while of eating like the French, we’d probably realize those nachos weren’t really that delicious at all.
NO JUNK
French women buy beautiful things but they’re mostly minimalists. They don’t have houses full of plastic junk, cluttered countertops and cupboards spilling out with cheap things bought just because “they were cute”. American women often don’t see the junk they are living with because it’s part of our fast and cheap culture. But you know those days where you spring clean your house and the table tops are all cleared off and everything just feels GREAT? Um, shouldn’t we be aiming for that every day? French women do. So next time you’re in the dollar section in Target, put down the glass jars with the chalkboard labels. You don’t need them. Put down the erasable wall calendar. You weren’t going to really use it anyhow. You never needed any of those sorts of things you’ve mindlessly collected along the way. Next time you’re tempted, imagine your beautiful, clear tabletop instead.
RELAXED PACE
French women take the time to eat a leisurely meal. They take time to drink their coffee. Us American women seem to love to rush around, creating frenzy all day long. There’s never enough hours! There’s never enough stuff! It’s a culture of busyness. We could all use a space in our calendar daily to sit with a friend over coffee, lay in the park, or take a bath. We need to have at least 45 minutes every day that we are allowed to claim. If this cannot be done, we need wonder what kind of lives we’re living and why.
SELF CARE
French women never neglect themselves. Skin care is always important. A night routine that focuses on beautiful things and self care. Wearing nice clothes that fit great every day. All of these priorities come down to believing that you are important and worthy of wonderful things, beautiful objects, and time for mental health. American women can do this too if we just realize we’re giving too much of our time away to others. We have to reclaim some time and focus for ourselves. We have to truly believe that we are a priority and worth it. We have to accept nothing less.
INDULGENCE WITHOUT APOLOGIES
The French believe that you should enjoy life.
Americans believe that you should work really hard to eventually enjoy life.
The French get this right in that they don’t think enjoying life is something that waits. Enjoying life is every day. Enjoying life is now.
SEXINESS WITHOUT EVEN TRYING
Why are they so sexy seemingly without any effort? Why are we efforting so much over here in the States? How can we stop this madness and be sexy like the French women?
Well, the good news and the bad news is that French sexiness you see is actually confidence. When you love your own unique beauty and feel good in your skin just being you, you feel a confidence that no one can take away from you. When you’re confident, people see it, they feel it and are drawn to you.
American women are constantly being told that we need the latest makeup hack or trick for bigger glutes, or a smaller waist, or the right eye shape, or… or…
We are constantly being knocked off balance by ads or social media, and we cannot feel confident until we shut all of that noise out and believe to our core that being ourselves is enough. Not only enough, but special and worthy. We need to believe it so hard that when we walk into a room feeling great, people can’t stop wondering what our secret is. We can’t keep letting French women have all the fun.
ELEGANCE AND CLASS
I’ve been to Paris twice now where each time I learned very quickly about in which way I continue to lack class and elegance in comparison to French women. Let me tell you a little story about my last trip to Paris when I left my hotel room with my hair still wet. This would be a normal occurrence back home in Los Angeles and no one would think twice about it. Almost immediately I felt out of place and wrong. Not a single person was walking around with wet hair! It felt like a red flag. American woman here! Red flag red flag!!
Not only that, the pants that I brought had a bright pattern on them. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. French women dress in a certain manner that is always charming, classy and elegant. There are many articles on how to dress like a French woman so I’m not going to rehash that here but I WILL say that well-fitting clothes in great fabrics, wearing small accessories and neutral makeup that enhances your natural beauty goes a long way. You will never see a French woman out shopping in gym clothes.
We American women could stand to have higher standards for the image we’re putting forth whenever we head out. This is entirely possible for us. You may want to read my article: How Dressing Better Can Change Your Entire Life.