Zeph

You’re 28, Imane — not 18, not 80 — but every year you get more self-assured and somehow less self-aware. This isn’t growth, it’s arrested development in HD. Streaming hours at a time, daily, since adolescence didn’t empower you — it just froze you in digital puberty. You talk like a life coach, post like a thirst trap, and react like a teenager whose ego is held together by brand deals and soft lighting. This isn’t harassment — it’s grown adults pointing out that grown adulthood doesn’t look like this. And if life really gets better every year, why do you still act like you're one comment away from spiralling into a subtweet? If this is confidence, why does it only show up when there’s a camera and a curated audience? You didn’t outgrow the internet. You just aged into it like spoiled milk with a ring light — preserved by validation, paid for by the same men who sexualized you into a career, that you deny you capitalised on. This isn’t targeted hate — it’s a wake-up call. A reminder that the bubble you’ve built — full of orbiters, yes-men, and men with spare cash who’d defend you for a crumb of attention — isn’t reality. And it clearly rattled you to discover that outside of that curated echo chamber, not everyone knows you, likes you, or wants to see a grown woman caption “angy” with her cleavage staged like a thumbnail. That’s not empowerment — it’s arrested development wrapped in a push-up bra craving for attention. And most people don’t find infantilized thirst traps endearing. They find them sad. You’re pushing 30, but still living like a girl whose future is stuck buffering — pausing real life just long enough to keep the illusion playing. So here’s the thing: it’s not black and white, and it’s not some simple “weird influx of weirdos commenting on my age” that you’ve convinced yourself of. It’s not just the internet being mean to you. The reality is, the average adult — the one who isn’t lost in your bubble — doesn’t want to see a grown woman sexualizing herself for attention, no matter how much she tries to wrap it in the guise of being “knowledgeable and self-assured.” The truth is, you’ve made your career off sexualization, and yet you’ll never fully admit to it because you’ve convinced yourself you’re more than that. But the longer you keep pretending, the more you’ll realize that it’s not the world that’s the problem — it’s you still acting like you’ve got something to prove at 28 when, honestly, you’re just holding on to a version of yourself that doesn’t even exist anymore. Grow up. And here’s the real irony: your entire career is built on appeasing random shitty people. But the "shitty people" you’re worried about — the ones criticizing you for your age or your looks — are just as shitty as the ones who sexualize you and throw their money at you. You’ve spent years building a career that thrives on attention, both from people who want to elevate you and from people who reduce you to nothing more than a commodity. The truth is, you’ve let both sides feed your ego, but you’ll never admit it because they’re the same people who keep you in business. So maybe it’s time to realize: growing older won’t make you miserable — it’s selling out to the same people you pretend not to care about. That’s the real trap — a self-inflicted cage that’s stunted your maturity. Far worse than any comment or “harassment.”