The view of others | France Inter

Ooooh yes! We're tired of these self-centered teenagers who spend their time examining their navel and then asking on TikTok if this navel is all that's normal or if – wouldn't it be more validating? – theirs would not be rather original, even unique, thus offering the opportunity to make a place for yourself in the world? No, really, teenagers are tiring… Whereas when you're an adult, you're free in your body, free in your head… it's been a long time since you got rid of this business of “looking at others” . You have become this famous “best version of yourself” and you no longer give a damn about anything! Isn't that right girls?

It's a somewhat idyllic picture, even exaggerated.

Am I not doing a little too much? Me ? So not my style AT ALL… But yes, of course I go to great lengths to reassure myself.. And you know why? Because last week I turned 49… 49! A rotten age… so hey, it starts with a 4, which allows me to still feel a little “in my forties”, even though I know that when I say that to myself, I'm blatantly lying to myself… a a bit like when I eat a tarte tatin armored with caramel, convinced that I am thus absorbing my 5 fruits and vegetables per day. So 49 years old… This is the age when some kind of crazy discussions appear between friends like “no, but I'll never have plastic surgery… 10,000 balls to look like Rachida

Dati or Valérie Pecresse, no thank you… BUT OKAY… to lift my eyelids, I'm not saying… You know, just to plump up the top of the face a little, right? / Ah me… it would be more like removing those things that fall below the neck, there, you see? / but no, go ahead, you have nothing… while I look at the pockets, they're disgusting!

So not quite free from the gaze of others…

You have to believe not… except that there are some changes between your teenage phase and your pre-old phase. Periods for example… Last week, for my birthday, Mother Nature gave me a great gift: she gave me… surprise periods! Yes, beautiful young girl's periods very abundant in mode: “oh shit! But I didn't plan! » (Oh it's okay, Ali, don't look so disgusted!) Well, well then, at 15, you wanted to go 6 feet under when it happened to you in the middle of English class when you had just taken out your best beige tracksuit for sports class with the sublime Mr. Lami… that you were paralyzed by the idea of ​​having to get up at the end of class in front of your class of idiots… Well, at 49, it's quite the opposite. At 49, when you still have your period, you almost want to organize a foam party to celebrate! You're on the verge of buying yourself a pair of white jeans so they'll show up in the cafeteria and you're running to the supermarket and grabbing a huge pack of tampons in case, due to a misunderstanding, it's gone again. If everyone could know that you are still in the game, not yet classified in the category of true menopauses for life, that would be great. So, if our adolescent shame sometimes becomes our pride today, we are never really free from the gaze of others. Unless from the beginning, it is with our own view of ourselves that we have to struggle the most… Who knows…