Editor’s Letter – Autumn 2022

I’m slightly conflicted about our celebration of celebrity. Yes, I know I am possibly in the wrong industry. I think that innate human tendency to reference our worth and success against others can not only detract us from the wonderful gift that each day is (I didn’t mean for that to sound like a televangelist, by the way), but it can also be a physiologically damaging, anxiety-inducing exercise.

But… and this is where my internal conflict comes in, I think it is also a wonderful thing to celebrate success. I despair at some of the envy politics that seem to be fuelling our already persuasive Tall Poppy syndrome. It’s 2022 for crying out loud. Can’t we let that go already? I guess if it’s a choice between too much trying-to-keep-up-with-the-Jones’ and making our kids petrified to stick their heads above the crowd with anything that vaguely resembles ambition, I’ll try and outshop the neighbours any day of the week.

Of course, luckily, it is not a binary decision and we can celebrate success without creating unachievable benchmarks for ourselves. This is lucky because our cover person, Rihanna – billionaire, entrepreneur, fashion designer, actor and singer sets multiple benchmarks across a range of disciplines. Just one of these would be more than enough to make her a success in anyone’s book. But of course, no one else’s definition of success matters other than her own. And while I would never want my daughter to think that she has to get anywhere near a billion dollars in the bank and a hit record to be a success, I would still want her to read this feature and know that amazing things are possible and that it is okay to follow your dreams.