New Girl Who This?

Hafsa Guled
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

A reflection on young adulthood through the lens of New Girl.

Hafsa Guled

The first time I started watching New Girl I was a fresh-eyed, eager freshman in college. I was working a full time job at a clothing store behind an unsuspecting shopping mall in the middle of nowhere. My intro to poetry class would end at 2 pm and I would take the express bus from downtown straight to my job in the suburbs. I spent the short 25 minute bus ride with my headphones in listening to the Strokes and Santigold, just daydreaming. My job consisted of helping older white women pick out formal clothes and cleaning up dirty fitting rooms.

Thanks to that job, to this day I can fold skinny jeans perfectly down to the creases. The whole set up of the department store was like a suburbanized nightmare with a make up kiosk, perfume section, and creepy mannequins and all. The plus side was nobody ever came into the store so I had ample time to daydream and watch shows in the break room.


Throughout my life, I always relied on pop culture and TV to provide happiness and an escape. Like Mindy Laheri famously said, “I was raised on TV and ended up just fine.” I was fully invested in the characters on my screen and saw them as friends in a completely earnest and real way. New Girl happened to be my obsession at the time. Yet I didn’t fully understand what it meant to pay bills, be an adult- adult, and still have roommates because I was so young and so far removed from that reality. I just loved Nick and Cece and the other characters and felt comforted by their stories.

The problems the cast of New Girl faced ranged from anything such as relationship issues, break ups, and job related stresses. Nick dropped out of law school and worked at a bar. Cece was a high school dropout modeling with no real direction for her future. Winston also just got back from playing basketball overseas and had a hard time readjusting to everyday life and finding a rewarding career.

Schmidt and Jess were the only two people in the loft with some semblance of “adult” lives and careers. I felt that I could relate to Jess’s need to be successful whilst also holding a very optimistic and sometimes naive outlook on life. She just wants the best for everyone at all times and even drives herself crazy for that standard. The concept of solving other peoples’ problems in order to feel needed is something that resonates deeply with me. I say this all the time but rewatching any show after a long period of time is a trip. I was 18 when I first watched New Girl and then 22 when I rewatched the series. Almost immediately I felt that I finally understood some of their problems. The feeling of being unappreciated at your job? Check. Money problems? Check. Relationship issues? Check. Living in a big city but still feeling alone? Check. Check. Check.

The minute I reached my twenties, I realized they never tell you about the early twenty something existential angst. I thought I’d grow out of my emo angst one day but I have come to the realization it just manifests itself into adult- sized angst.

The precarious state of constantly feeling on the edge of something completely horrifying happening or feeling like you forgot to turn off the stove is what being in my twenties is like. But if anything New Girl shows me that even within those existential crisises, you can still have incredibly high moments.

When I first turned 20 I cried so hard I felt my eyeballs dry out. I felt my identity of being an angsty teen was gone and I wasn’t sure who I was. But I’ve grown into my age. Like Nick said, “I like getting older, I’m growing into my personality.” I hope to one day be in my thirties with even more confidence and self- assurance. Here’s to future old me, hopefully I turn out even better with time.

freeing my chains through writing hafsa.guled@gmail.com

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