If January's getting you down then may we suggest a cursory glance at Michaela Coel's Instagram?
The actress and writer, as you well know, is the genius behind hit comedy show Chewing Gum. She has appeared in not one but two episodes of Black Mirror and has already been the subject of 2018's most exquisite meme. In short, Michaela Coel is killing it.
It's no surprise, then, to find out through her Instagram (and our interview with her) that she is also an excellent human being. Michaela's Instagram feed is all about harnessing the sort of self-confidence that women – especially women of colour – aren't taught to nurture and express within themselves. It's funny, honest and, best of all, completely unapologetic. After all, what has she got to be sorry about? From body shape to skin colour, black hair to sexism, Michaela is addressing it all.
Forget self-care stuff like meditation and bubble baths; your new self-care prescription is to scroll religiously through Michaela's Instagram every Sunday evening.
Here's a few impeccable examples.
"Me: have you noticed?
@joshuakissi: what?
Me: my pube area looks like I got a lil dick that's been panini'd. Or looks like there's a little coffin on my clit now that it doesn't know how to live anymore."
After Tracee Ellis Ross sent her this dress: "Being 5'3 (and half ?) with no hips I'd always steer away from dresses like these: "What's the point in bodycon if there's no body to con?" What if, by chance I pass a rapper in the street and he mocks me for not meeting the aesthetic brief constantly stuffed down our throats for the last decade?..."
She continues: "...Much happier wearing a dress from a Queen #TER4JCP (yes no seriously TRACEE sent me a f**ing dress)."
"'Mother, steady me, I'm trying to ascend.' 'Okay enough now, people are beginning to stare' She wasn't expecting me to turn out this way, and despite my unpredictability, liberalism and flawed sense of righteousness, she loves me and is very proud of me. Love you mummy."
She's going to take her time with Chewing Gum season three, despite what people want. And that's A-OK because it's hers to take her time with. "I'd go into the logistics but it will bore you. (I got that line from Donald Trump)" she says.
"Issa joyful human who doesn't want to dance according to societies expectations today," she says, holding her meat and dairy-free lasagne.
"AND U BETTER KNOW YOU BEAUTIFUL TOO BITCHES. ??? "
"It's my creative birthday today," she says in this self-reflective post about her career. "2 yrs ago today we hadn't even FILMED chewing gum. So much has happened so fast! I will always be grateful, and the good ol' misogynoir I face daily will always keep my feet to the ground ? ?????❤️?."
"Thank you God, for an awesome, bloody unexpected life, full of health, sickness, richness, brokenness, friends, lessons, failures, wins, wisdoms, lovers (more of those please), family, laughter, and retrospection. Send my breasts as high as the clouds, fill them with volume, may they fly with your angels."
On her mum: "She sewed and sold dresses to afford to come to London. She arrived with no family here, no support, no home to call her own. She had my sister and I, and raised us, alone. She taught me how to to season and cook chicken when I was 9 years old. She worked, and with little to no government help she kept a roof over my head, fed me, disciplined me, and also had time to sing me lullabies to bed and cuddle me like all the time. With the same hands she sewed those dresses with in the 80's she made me a dress to wear to the BAFTA's.
I'm not sure the point at which she became superwoman, but I was definitely raised by a hero. A Shero. Strong, beautiful, vulnerable, sensual affectionate wise Ghanaian mother.
Thanks for making me the Queen I am today (the Queen of Thots)."
"Me, trying to look like a kind, stable, well-behaved, sane, non-threatening, intelligent but not too intelligent, unintentionally sexy woman, with a 1mm wide vagina, pink nipples, a low body count, and zero experience in blow jobs, but yet somehow exuding the promise of being greatly skilled at them.
Taken 0.45 seconds before I burst out laughing at the above thoughts."
Michaela made this video for Blessing Okagbare, the Nigerian triple jumper who lost her wig mid-jump at an event in Oslo.
"The real crime here is not that she was wearing a wig - as many of you do, as many of your girlfriends of ALL races do. The crime is that women are so judged and looked upon that she felt she couldn't do her job without the illusion of long hair," she says. "Black women ESPECIALLY 4C type hair women are told that they can wear weave, but not wigs, that they can wear braids but not weave, that they can wear curly wigs but not straight ones.
That they must create an illusion successful enough for men to be duped and continue living in their delusion..."
"...Pro weave, pro wig, pro I DECIDE WHAT LOOKS NICE ON ME OR NOT."
"No make up no filter no edit. Yes, i know, I'm litty. Why is my ego so huge? I'm a black working class female from immigrant parents writing stories in a career (and industry) operated by rich white men. If my ego wasn't huge I would simply crumble under the constant microaggressive reminders that I shouldn't be here. But I am supposed to be here.
"And the rich white men that never learned to share their toys are going to have to sit there and cry while elegantly snatch them from their hands and I feel zero guilt about it. In fact: I'm enjoying it. Here is to 30- last year brought me VEGANISM, a deeper understanding of the human species and how I cannot cry/yell/scream in outrage at inequality and historical mistreatment of the underpowered whilst demonstrating those exact same evil habits and mindlessly mistreating beings less powerful than I. I learned that friendship is an equal exchange and let go of the people I advise, love, entertain and safeguard but get nothing in return. I am surrounded by people who give me shit I need and want. I'm 5 months into filming the biggest job of my career and in these 5 months I've seen myself grow faster then I have in the last 10 years. And this is just the beginning. Bye bish."
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