I Don’t Want To Be The ‘Troubled Girl’ Anymore

Turns out, you can’t get healthy and hold on to all your bullshit ideas about sexy tragedy.

Content note: There’s some talk of mental health, suicidal ideations, and eating disorders in here so please be kind to yourself and make a decision that’s good for you. ❤

“You do remind me a bit of tragedy,” read the AOL Instant Message on my computer screen. I was in my college dorm, about to go out for yet another Lucky Strike on the back steps with the other bad kids. “With your, like, big sunglasses and your scarves and stuff.”

It was, at the time, the greatest compliment he could have paid me.

I was listening to a lot of Bob Dylan then and like any number of girls in the last four decades, I identified closely with the character (because truly, it could not have been an accurate portrayal of a complete human) described in “Just Like a Woman.”

You know the details of this kind of character. TVTropes.com refers to her most closely as the Broken…