Tinder: The Trials and Tribulations of Modern Dating

Here's my latest blog for Huffington Post which you can also read on their website here.

"What's up?"
"Can I see your photos somewhere?"
"Also, I am sorry if I get too forward, but I can't seem to get over how cute you seem to be, and I would really love to have a coffee with you before I leave"
"What time would suit you, Sarah?"
"Hello?"

It's safe to say my last experience on Tinder wasn't exactly a fun one. I found myself being bombarded with multiple messages from the same few men, including the one who was responsible for the messages above. Then when he realised I wasn't going to reply, he got his friend who I'd also matched with to start bugging me too. It soon proved to be more hassle than I'd signed up for, so I decided to delete the app and swore I'd never go near it again.

I've always been too sceptical about the reasons why people use Tinder. I know people who have met their boyfriends on the app, and others who use it purely for casual sex. I even know someone who said he was using it to look for climbing partners when I came across his profile. However, it does seem like there's an increasing number of people using it who are actually interested in meeting someone. So with that in mind, I downloaded the app again and dived into a week of Tinder.

Saturday
"Hello. You look very kissable. x"
"Hi Sarah, you look lovely! How are you doing today? x"
"Hi Sarah, how's you? It's great to see we are a match xx"

I guess you could say I got off to a fairly good start. After a few minutes of swiping, I'd already managed to rack up almost 40 matches and had a few seemingly nice men send me messages. It only took a few hours for me to be asked out on my first date by Rob*. I don't know what the Tinder etiquette is, but I'd personally like someone to send me more than two short messages before asking me out. After all, we didn't know anything about each other and his profile didn't give anything away. I politely declined his invitation and left him to ask someone else out instead.

Sunday
I'm pretty sure there was a full moon last night because I seemed to be inundated with weird messages all day. The day started with James* who said, "Thanks for matching. So where you from and what is it you do (inset lots of fork and knife emojis) I've only got forks and knives but I really need a little spoon". I don't even know where to begin talking about what is wrong with that message. I decided against replying, and hoped James managed to figure out how weird it was for himself.

It didn't even take 24 hours for someone to send me an inappropriate message. Richard* told me that he tends to grab ass when he kisses, and he hopes I wasn't going to be scared of his big hands. I wasn't scared at all and I'm certainly not a prude, but I was put off by how forward he was being. Later on that night, he said he would give me free ice cream if I visited the shop he managed. I didn't have the heart to tell him I'm vegan so can't eat any of his ice cream anyway. After a few more messages he lost interest. I guess he found someone else who actually did want him to grab their ass.

Monday
If your first message is going to be song lyrics, then don't make it Journey. I know lots of people like them, but 'Don't Stop Believin' is one of the worst songs I've ever heard. I hated it when Journey did it, and I hated it even more when Glee covered it. I guess it comes as no surprise that I didn't reply to Jason* when he said, "JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL".

Tuesday
One of my top pet hates is when people don't reply to a text. Unless you are really busy and not beside your phone, then it literally only takes about 10 seconds to send a quick message. However, Tinder is different because I don't actually know these people. So when William* kept asking me why I wasn't replying, I decided it was time to close the app for the day and pray he'd figure out that I didn't want to chat to him.

Wednesday 
Remember James*? He's the one who told me he needed a little spoon. Well, he's back again. He wants to know what I thought of his messages because he tried it on someone else and she unmatched him. I know I probably should have told him how awful his message was, but I didn't want to get into a long conversation about it. Hopefully he's realised that no girl is ever going to reply to a message like that, and a simple "hello" would work much better.

Thursday
One of the downsides to Tinder is you'll inevitably come across someone you know, and this happened on Thursday when I swiped for Ryan*. As awkward as these things can be, it was refreshing to find someone nice and normal in the sea of the weird men who had been bugging me all week.

Friday
HOORAY FOR MY LAST DAY ON TINDER!! I didn't think I'd be so happy to wave goodbye to it. I don't want to be too hard on the app because I do know people who have met their significant other on it, and they're perfectly happy. However, I just really don't think it's for me. The whole thing feels like a meat market, and it's not one I want to be part of. Plus, is it really too much to ask that someone wants to talk for more than two seconds before wanting to meet up? Or that someone can chat to you without telling you they want to grab your ass? I guess not according to Tinder. Anyway the past seven days have proved to be more than enough for me to end my relationship with the app, and never go back there again.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the men I spoke to in case they're still hoping to get a date.

Does #NoThighGap Really Celebrate All Bodies?

Last week, the thigh gap debate sparked its ugly head again when the #NoThighGap hashtag started trending on Twitter. It started when Lena Dunham posted a picture of her thighs on Instagram using the hashtag. In the days that followed, hundreds of other women were sharing photos of their own legs online.

While it was great that women wanted to show the world their photos, those of us with a thigh gap were left feeling excluded like the new kid in school. Surely we shouldn't be made to feel like there's something wrong with our bodies just because we happen to have a gap between our thighs?

I've been in such a writing rut lately, but I'm trying to concentrate on it more and make writing for Huffington Post a much more regular thing. 

So here's some words I wrote about #NoThighGap - 

It's been a few years since we first heard of the thigh gap craze. Lots of young girls were sharing their diet tips online in order to try and create a space between their legs. It wasn't helped by the fact some high street companies were using very thin girls in their advertising, and celebrities like Beyonce seemed to be editing their own photos to make their gap more prominent.

And while none of this is okay, we shouldn't forget that some people do just happen to have a natural thigh gap. I've had one for as long as I can remember, and it's not something I've had to starve myself to achieve.

Despite it's name, the #NoThighGap campaign does claim it celebrates all shapes and sizes, but there seems to be an increasing number of articles online which are very much in the anti-thigh gap camp.

Elite published this article last week on why bigger thighs are best. It started by saying women with thigh gaps are also beautiful, but then went on to list reasons why bigger thighs are better. I came away from the article having been told I won't be able to dance as long as my friends in clubs and I'm at an increased risk of heart disease. The article also told me that I won't be able to do crazy sex moves like the cowgirl (which isn't even that crazy) because I don't have thick strong thighs.

I very aware not to believe everything I read online, but articles like this aren't exactly celebrating all body types. Instead, it's listing lots of reason why having thin thighs is wrong, even if some of the reasons are completely ridiculous.

I don't want to sound like I'm against women being confident and proud of their bodies. I think it's a wonderful thing that doesn't happen often enough. However, maybe we should come up with a new hashtag that allows us all to take part, whether we have a gap between our thighs or not.

Twitter Trolls Gonna Troll, Troll, Troll

Last week, Lena Dunham became the latest celebrity to speak out about how she's been affected by Twitter trolls. Speaking at the annual PaleyFest in Los Angeles, she talked openly about her experiences trying to brush off comments that had been made about her online:

"I was like 'the spelling's so bad, I'm not taking these people seriously; they have eggs for avatars, I don't care!' And you walk through the day and these horrible phrases are being repeated through your head... There are things that affect me; I'm weird, I'm affected by violence, threats of rape, I'm a mess!"

As someone who has had her own experiences with Twitter trolls, I know those feelings all too well. It's been almost a year since my Twitter went into meltdown over a mistaken identity with former Manchester United boss David Moyes. I'm not trying to say that I received even a tiny percentage of the abuse Lena gets on a daily basis, but I can certainly understand how people like Lena are left feeling after checking your phone to find hundreds of horrible comments.

When I was getting abuse online, people continually told me to ignore what other people were saying. But trust me, it's a lot easier said than done. I mean, how would you feel if people said these things to you on Twitter?

"@Moyesy is such a cunt. Your dad deserves to be injected with the Aids virus and you little shit gang raped by buffaloes! Whore"

"Your dad is a proper cunt you bitch. Tell him to fuck off you slag, waste of oxygen and stop sleeping with every United player"

"@Moyesy get your inept father out the club before I fucking burn him alive! You probably got a fanny like a window cleaners bucket!! #Slag"

"@Moyesy what happened to your face or are you naturally that ugly?"

This is only a tiny selection of the tweets I got last year. I lost count of the number I got from people who were calling me everything from a slut to someone who should die because she was so ugly. Just like Lena, I found it really hard to push these sort of comments aside, even though I didn't know the people who were saying it. And if you're someone who doesn't have much confidence to begin with, then these comments will only knock that confidence even more.

I also had the unpleasant experience of running into someone in a bar whose friend had given me abuse online. Last month, I could hear my name being said really loudly by someone at another table, and within a few seconds he was over at my table telling anyone would listen that his mate had given me lots of abuse on Twitter. Although instead of being apologetic about the whole thing, he seemed really proud about it. It was as if he was expecting me to give him a high five or something.

So what's actually being done to help people who get this sort of abuse online? Well if the abuse is really bad, then you can report it to the police. It's a step that Chloe Madeley took a few months ago when found herself on the receiving end of rape threats via Twitter. Looking back, it's something I wish I had done. I wouldn't say I felt in any real danger from the rape threats, but if a journalist from The Sun newspaper can turn up at my flat unannounced, then I'm sure other people can find out my whereabouts too.

I went down the route of shaming, blocking and reporting the people who said the vilest things. I felt a huge wave of support from people I didn't even know as soon as I started retweeting what people were saying. I had quite a few people who continued to send offensive comment after comment, so knowing the block function stopped them from being able to do that again was a great help. I also reported these people to Twitter, as did quite a few of my friends, but I'm still not convinced any action was actually taken. I found the reporting function on Twitter to take a lot of time, especially since I couldn't keep up with the number of tweets I was getting to be able to report them all.

In December, Twitter announced plans to make it easier to report abuse so it does look like they're trying to help people who find themselves victims of Twitter trolls. However with a rise in the number of people falling victim to these trolls, it looks like we're a long way off finding a proper solution to help them.

I Can't Believe It's Vegan!

It's been a while since I've written anything for Huffington Post. Sometimes I can write for hours, but other times I sit staring at a blank screen for days on end. I'm trying to start writing regularly again, so here's my first post of the year that you can also read here.

_________________________________________________________________

How many things did you plan to give up this month? Whether it was alcohol, smoking or junk food, most of us have tried to give up something in January in a bid to become a bit healthier.

One campaign that's been trying to encourage us all to adopt a healthier lifestyle this month is Veganuary. It's also hoped that some people might continue to be vegan once the month is over. If you're one of the people who does, then it can be a bit daunting trying to figure out what you can and can't eat on a permanent basis. It's fine to get through a couple of weeks without animal products, but doing it full time can turn shopping into a bit of a chore. Not all supermarkets carry a vegan label on their food, so you need to become some kind of detective every time you pick up a product that you want to buy.

Luckily, there's quite a few products around that are accidentally vegan. So while you can enjoy discovering some new vegan chocolate and biscuits, you can also keep eating these items safe in the knowledge that they contain no animal products.

Oreos 

You would think a sandwich cookie that consists of two chocolate biscuits with a cream filling would be anything but vegan. However, the biscuit manufacturer recently changed some of the ingredients, meaning the ones made in Europe are free of all animal products.

Pop Tarts

Okay, so the varieties with chocolate or frosting are out. But the unfrosted Pop Tarts like Brown Sugar, Blueberry or Strawberry are completely vegan. They might not be that healthy, but they do make a good occasional breakfast food.

Starburst

Wait, there's a chewy candy that doesn't contain gelatine? I wish I'd known this last year while I missed my former favourite sweets. Well, it turns out that Starburst (or Opal Fruits as I still like to call them) are 100% vegan.

Pringles

If you're missing the taste of barbecue, then you can now happily tuck into a tub of Texas BBQ Pringles. I should point out that you can't eat all flavours of Pringles, but we can live in hope that one day Sour Cream & Chive will be suitable to eat too.

Veggie Colin The Caterpillar - Fizzy Rainbows

Marks and Spencer have recently released lots of new vegetarian sweets, but some of them are vegan friendly too. There's a bit of an argument about whether you should eat products with beeswax in them. If you're against it, then these sweets are one variety that's completely fine for you to eat.

Fox's Party Rings

Due to some recent ingredient changes, vegans can now enjoy the party too. I wouldn't say they were the best biscuits in the world, but they were a staple of every birthday party I went to as a kid. I guess that alone is a reason to revisit them.

Jus-Rol Cinnamon Swirls

Apart from cheese, cinnamon related pastries are the one thing I miss the most. But then I discovered that I could eat these for breakfast. If cinnamon isn't your thing, then they have other delicious varieties to try too.

Why I Quit Facebook And You Probably Should Too

It’s been over a month since I deactivated my Facebook account.

I guess you could say that I’m somewhat of a social media addict. I spent my teenage years arranging my top 8 friends on Myspace and writing every little detail of my life on LiveJournal. And these days I still have an array of social media accounts including Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. 

For the past few years, I've used Facebook pretty religiously. It was the first thing I checked when I got up in the morning, and the last thing I would look at before I went to bed at night. I enjoyed posting pictures from my holidays, checking myself in when I was at gigs and keeping up to date with what my friends on the other side of the world were doing.

However while that side of Facebook was great, I found there was a darker side of it that was starting to make me feel really unhappy.

I know that Facebook only shows you the edited version of what people are doing with their lives. And let’s face it, the majority of the time it’s the parts that people want to brag about. It wasn't like I had nothing to brag about myself. I have a great job, an amazing family and supportive group of friends. However even with all that going on, I was starting to feel like everyone was leading a much more exciting life than I was.

Then there’s the issue of relationships. If you’re lucky enough to be in one, then Facebook can be a wonderful thing. But if you've broken up with someone, then there can be nothing worse than seeing that person you used to date all loved up with their new girlfriend. Even if you're friends and no longer have feelings for them, there's still a part of you that’s going to feel slightly weird about the whole thing.

I've also lost count of the number of my friends who have sat on Facebook waiting for their crush to appear online, only to then get upset when they don’t talk to them. And if there is someone on your Facebook who you like, then you can send yourself crazy overthinking the motive of every girl who likes their latest profile picture or comments on their status.

There wasn't one particular thing that made me decide to finally delete my account. I had previously deactivated it for a week here and there, but always ended up going back.

This time though I was starting to realise how much anxiety I had over things I was seeing. Then it got to the stage where it almost seemed pointless to keep my account active when I was hiding so many people from my timeline and purposely not looking at particular profiles.

So after a month of being logged off, do I actually feel different?

I definitely feel like it’s good for my mental wellbeing as I’m no longer worrying about what I see and comparing myself to others. I also feel like I'm making more time to actually talk to my friends, rather than just reading what they're doing online and thinking that counts as catching up.

It's not a decision for everyone, and I still know lots of people who love the site. But maybe this has given you something to think about next time you find yourself upset over something you've seen. Or when you realise that you've wasted an entire evening comparing yourself to the people from school that you really don't really care about anymore.

There's a much wider world outside of Facebook, and it's about time we put down our phones and started to realise it. 

A friend of mine left a comment on my Facebook saying after the whole Moyesy thing, he wasn’t surprised that my latest blog post went viral. Well I was VERY surprised. I don’t expect anyone to really read anything I write, nevermind the numbers that have read this post. 

When I posted a blog about body image a few weeks ago, I ended up getting some lovely messages from people about what I wrote. A couple of people even said it was beautifully written, which was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about it. The post was more personal than anything I’ve written before, so I decided not to submit it to Huffington Post. Instead, I just posted it on here and again thought no one would notice it.

I decided I wanted to submit the Independence blog though as it's the most talked about subject in Scotland just now. I thought it might get a couple of comments at the most, but even then I thought I was being  little too optimistic. At the moment, it’s sitting there with just over 300 comments. What’s even more insane than that is it’s been shared 80 times on Facebook and been liked 1.3K times (now 1.7K likes but updating the photo might be a step too far).. If I’d thought for one second that it was going to attract this much attention, then I probably would have checked it a lot more for spelling and grammar. I might have also taken more time to write it, but I find I write best when I write as quickly as I can.

It’s also the second time a blog of mine has been one of the featured blogs on the homepage of the Huffington Post website this year. I don’t even know how to begin to get my head around that. If you're one of the people who read/commented/shared/like it then all I have to say is THANK YOU. 

Why I'm Voting Yes For Scottish Independence

This month, like everyone else in Scotland, I'm going to be casting the most important vote of my life so far. Despite voting in every election I've been able to, this is the first time when I feel like my vote will actually count for something. It's my chance to change the country I live in for the better, and I don't understand anyone who wouldn't want to see that happen.

I was born in Falkirk, studied in Glasgow (with no tuition fees I should add) and now I work in Edinburgh. While my dad who is approaching 60 says he has always felt British, I have always felt Scottish. So in just over two weeks' time on September 18th, I'll be voting Yes for an independent Scotland. 

My decision to vote Yes is not one I'm taking lightly, yet it's one that feels completely natural. I haven't had to do months of soul searching to come to this conclusion. It just feels right for me and the country I live in. After all, why wouldn't we want to live in a country that makes its own decisions? At the moment, we're living with a London based parliament making our decisions for us. Of course, Scotland has the right to make some of the choices, but a lot of the decisions which affect us are still being decided by people in London. Can they really have our best interests at heart? And more importantly, can they even understand our needs? 

When I've been speaking to friends and work colleagues about the referendum, a lot of people are afraid of the unknown and the changes that an independent Scotland will bring. But there's nothing to guarantee that we won't face worse changes after the next UK general election anyway. It now seems unlikely that the Liberal Democrats will make any sort of mark come next May, so that leaves us torn between David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage. Even if you're not a big fan of Alex Salmond, you have to admit that he knows what's best for Scotland much more than they do.  

Everyone has their own individual reasons for voting for or against independence, and I certainly have my own. As a woman who hopes to have children one day, I want them to grow up in the best country possible. I don't want them growing up knowing I could have voted for Scotland to become a better place, but simply didn't want to take the risk. 

The future generations of Scotland deserve to live in a country that has control over its own economy. A country where young people can continue to benefit from a free education, and then thrive as more job opportunities are created for them. We'd also be living in a country with free prescriptions, and one that doesn't have an NHS under threat from privatisation.

With just over two weeks to go until we go to the polls, I really hope the people of Scotland grasp this historical opportunity for all it's worth. The No campaign might think we're better together, but surely if that was true then we'd already be better together. This leaves us with just one viable option. That option is to vote Yes and see our country head in the direction it deserves for the people who actually live in it.

National Blood Week: Why We Should All Be Donating Now

I was 25 years old when I stepped into the Glasgow Blood Donor centre to give blood for the first time. It had always been something I had thought about doing, but like most of the population I'd just never really got round to it. In Scotland, only 5% of us are active donors meaning National Blood Week is more important than ever.

I should probably point out that not everyone who wants to donate is a suitable donor. That's why it's vital that if you are eligible, then you do give blood on a regular basis. I have friends who have lived abroad or take certain medications that prevent them from being able to donate. I have other friends who are gay or who frequently get tattoos, and this means they also fall into categories that don't allow them to do it. If you're one of the unlucky ones (or I guess lucky if you're scared of needles) who can't give blood, then you'll probably be able to talk a family member or work colleague who can. After all, you do have 95% of the Scottish population to choose from.

Growing up as a fan of a certain Dr Ross in ER, I saw my fair share of patients being given blood on TV. But it wasn't until I was 21 that I actually saw first-hand how vital blood donations are for the people who need them. I had just graduated from university and thought my world was pretty invincible when my brother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He didn't just need one transfusion, he had regular blood and platelet transfusions during his 12 month stay in hospital. Like most cancer patients, it's a normal part of their treatment and they wouldn't be able to undergo chemotherapy without it.

Both my siblings have spent time in hospital with serious illnesses, but somehow I manage to pull a lucky card because I've never really been sick. I endured the playground fun of wearing glasses and braces at the same time, but I've never spent any time in hospital. I haven't had to rely on other people giving blood in order to live to like my brother did when he was just 11 years old. Other members of my family need to take medication every day which makes them unable to donate. It means I've somehow ended up flying the solo flag for blood donations in the Moyes household, and I'm determined to convince others to join me.

If you're someone who has given blood before, then maybe it's time to take the next step and think about giving platelets. The small cells are what help our blood to clot, and they're vital for people undergoing cancer treatment. And with a shelf-life of just a few days, it's essential that donations are continually coming in. Due to my weight, I've not yet be able to donate platelets. My brother seems to think a good sister would gain 21 pounds so she could do it, but instead I've tried to convince the nurse at my local centre that I'd be a suitable donor. Unfortunately after several attempts, I've still had no luck.

The truth of the matter is that at one point or another, either you or someone close to you is going to need a blood transfusion. It might not be today, and it might not happen for another 10 years. But how would you feel if the doctors turned around and told you that supplies were too low? It might seem like an extreme scenario right now, but it might just happen if more of us don't understand how important it is to start donating blood.

Meat Free May

What did you have for breakfast this weekend? Did you sit down to some bacon, a roll on sausage, or was it a fry-up? Well if you had any of those on your plate over the past couple of days, then you might find it harder to last 31 days without any meat or fish. And that's what Friends of the Earth are asking us to do as part of their Meat Free Campaign, one that ultimately wants to show us that it is possible to reduce how much meat we're eating.

I grew up in a family who all ate meat, but our meat consumption was never really that high. We ate chicken, sausages and mince, but there wasn't even a turkey on that table every Christmas. We never sat down to eat lamb chops or duck either, but it always seems to be the fact I've never eaten a steak that shocks people the most.

I was 13 years old when I decided to become vegetarian. My family were fully behind the idea from the start; even though I'm sure they all thought it was just another passing phase. There have been a few hiccups over the years where I've eaten a bit of fish at a family event, and there was one occasion when I tasted wood pigeon that an ex-boyfriend ordered in a fancy restaurant. Although for 99% of the past 14 years, I've been completely vegetarian.

The main reason I stopped eating meat in the first place, was that I simply didn't and still don't agree with killing animals for food. But at the end of last year, I started looking into the dairy industry more and made the decision to become vegan. It felt hypocritical that i wouldn't eat a beef burger, yet seemed completely content with eating ice cream knowing that dairy cows are regularly given hormones, and live most of their life standing on a concrete floor. The majority of them are also fed a diet that's high in protein and even consists of other dead farm animals in a bid to make them produce a higher yield of milk. Then there are the 32 million hens that are producing eggs in the UK, half of which are kept in battery style cages just so people like me could enjoy some scrambled egg for breakfast.

It wasn't just the treatment and killing of animals though, I couldn't quite get my head around the fact there's children dying around the world of hunger, yet we use one third of the world's cereal to feed factory farmed animals. Then there are all the messages about reducing your carbon footprint, even though producing animals for food is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions there is.

I'm not going to pretend that becoming vegan was easy. I recently spent my first Easter without Crème Eggs, and when everyone at work was tucking into cake pops at an event recently, all I could do was watch on from a distance. But that's not what Friends of the Earth want you to do; they just want you to give up meat and fish during this campaign, and follow a vegetarian diet.

Before you begin to worry about what you'll eat, it's a lot easier than you would think. All big supermarket chains carry a variety of vegetarian friendly food including mince, sausages and even ready meals. I'm not going to pretend that vegetarian bacon tastes remotely like the real thing, but generally speaking most vegetarian products are great. It'll also give you more chance to eat vegetables, and become a little bit more experimental with your cooking.

Even if you've already eaten meat this month, or don't think you could last the full 31 days that Friends of the Earth are hoping you'll do, then don't give up yet. Why not try it for a week, or even order a vegetarian meal next time you're out for dinner? The campaign is all about showing people it's possible to cut back on how much meat and fish we eat, and if people make a few simple changes then Meat Free May has been a success.

An Actual Football Manager Ruined My Life

This is how the whole thing started. It was meant to be a harmless tweet directed at the people who tweet me every single time Manchester United play. For some odd reason, people seem to think i am actually David Moyes or they just assume we're related, with most thinking i'm his daughter (who looks nothing like me). Most of the tweets were pretty harmless before this week, and usually just asked me to sort out the team. However what's happened since this tweet was posted on Tuesday night has been completely unbelievable.  

In the first 24 hours, it had been retweeted about 1000 times. That's not counting the hundreds of new followers, favourites and mentions i was receiving every few minutes. By this point i'd already been contacted by the Manchester Evening News and had a call from Key 103 in Manchester about appearing on the Breakfast Show the next day. 

Then on Wednesday evening, Gary Lineker retweeted it and my phone literally had a meltdown. I can't begin to explain how many times per second i was receiving new notifications on twitter. It actually took me about 15 minutes to scroll through them all to see the notification of his retweet because of the volume of mentions coming through. 

I guess that's when the really abusive tweets started. I'd heard about trolling before and i was bulled in school, but i have never ever experienced anything like this. I understand that these people don't know me and they probably do it to lots of other people, but that doesn't make it any easier to read. Here's a very small selection of some of the most extreme ones...

While these are horrific, I've lost count of the number of tweets i got telling me how ugly i am. It's not nice for any girl (i might be 27, but i still feel weird being called a woman) to read. While it can be easy to put on a brave face and brush off the extreme ones, i think i found it harder to read the ones attacking my apperance. You just have to ask my best friends how little self confidence i have at the best of times, especially when it comes to how i look. So by Friday night, i was pretty upset over the sheer volume of horrible tweets that were coming through.

It also makes you wonder if i'd have got the same amount of abuse had i been a guy. About 95% of the abuse was from men, the only girls having a go where those who told me to change my name. But i can't imagine they'd be calling another guy half those names, if it had been a man in my position. 

Lucky i have some of the best friends in the world who lovely throughout the whole thing, and others who i may not have heard from in a while, but who definitely had my back. It was nice to see some comedians coming out to support me too (even if i don't actually know them)...

So when i woke up on Friday, my face was splashed across The Sun, Daily Record and Edinburgh Evening News...

That's not to count the various websites who picked up on the story including Daily Mail and Buzzfeed. I also ended up getting interviewed for Radio Forth, and i spoke to Des and Jennie on the Capital FM Breakie show on Friday morning too. 

One of the main misconceptions from the people tweeting me and who still are tweeting me, is that i love the attention. I've got hundreds of tweets like these telling me so and calling me names in the process...

I can safely say i DID NOT enjoy the attention. I have enough anxiety about things without all this going on too. I was pretty excited to be mentioned on Buzzfeed considering how much time i spend doing quizzes to find out which member of Girls i'm most like. But that doesn't mean i'm an attention seeker at all.

The reason i don't want to change my name is simple, it's because that's what people have called me since i was 16. The first time i got called Moyesy was by a Journalist at the Falkirk Herald when i was on work experience from school. I wasn't overly keen on it at the time, but then Zane Lowe called me during some work experience at MTV, and it just kind of stuck. More friends call my Moyesy than Sarah, and it's also the name i use on various other social networking sites. I guess i'd feel defeated if i changed it now, and i really don't want to do it.

It's now been 5 days since it all kicked off and things are finally starting to die down. I'm still getting lots of new followers, mentions and retweets every hour. And i'm also getting lots of new Facebook friend requests from people on the other side of the world thanks to some Indonesian website called Boladoang posting the story. I think it's fairly safe to say the worst of it is definitely over though. 

I also want to say thank you to EVERYONE who sent me lovely messages over the past couple of days, it really has made all the difference. While some of it has been funny, it's also been pretty intense and i do appreciate the support I've had. 

And before i forget, can we all pray that Man United win against Bayern Munich on Tuesday?!

Thanks!! 

P.S - Thanks to Tony Jameson for the blog post title. If you saw his Fringe show last year, then it'll probably make more sense.