Pop-culture Pressure

A few weeks ago I’m waiting for an appointment and I come across a Self magazine. On the cover is Jennifer Lopez, who I love, so I flip inside to an article on how she’s “doing it right.” The article explains that while she’s working on a new album, production, and promoting her new perfume line, Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony have decided to raise their twins without the help of nannies. She only has her mother or sister help out. Additionally, she’s now training for a triathlon.

So many things about this article frustrated me. Not the least of which that Jennifer Lopez is 38 and just had twins. It seems like a slim possibility she had children without the help of a fertility specialist at her age, and the fact she had twins making it seem even more likely she had a little help. She has a right to her privacy, but an article on her struggles to have children and then finally being blessed with twins would have been immeasurably helpful to me instead of a litany of all of her accomplishments, including losing all of her pregnancy weight by training for a triathlon all without help raising the babies beyond her immediate family. It’s so easy to feel like a failure before I even get started with these unrealistic mothers splashed on the covers of magazines.