5. Avan Jogia

I think my eyes fell in love with Avan when I first saw him on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious”. His sultry eyes and wind swept tresses definitely drew me in. To me, he has that sweet heart look but with an edge. Like, he can write you poetry but still know how to ride a motorcycle or something dangerous like that. I also follow Avan on twitter (so I can find out when he is single lol just kidding) where he displays his support for those marginalized by society and politics. Overall, Avan Jogia seems like a really cool guy that would always capture a girl’s attention. In case you were wondering, he’s half Indian and half white.

4. Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock

I first fell in love with The Rock when I was less than 10 year old watching WWE and RAW (wrestling shows) with my dad and brothers. I swooned every time he did that face where he raised his eye brows asking if we could smell what The Rock was cooking. I grew up to like him even more when he stopped wrestling and started acting. His roles always presented him as the big muscular guy whose actually a teddy bear on the inside which elevated his appeal to me even more. I follow him on Instagram and I get the vibe that this is his actual persona. Unfortunately, he’s off the market as well but a girl can dream.

3. Will Smith

Will Smith – “The Prince of Bel Air” 1991 Photo Credit: Harry Langdon_Shooting Star

I think all of us 90s girls all have or had a crush on Will Smith especially from watching “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”. Will had the looks, the height, and the funny charm that most girls desire in a man. Similar to The Rock, it does also seem that Will is actually funny in real life and is a truly hard working man as one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. The fact that he has a family and is a family man puts him off the market but definitely singles him out as #baegoals.

2. Idris Elba

The name “Idris” alone springs up mystery and desire to know more about the man behind the name. The fact that Idris is British and has that oh so delightful accent elevates his appeal into infinity. His ability to act with much skill and pull of an equally admirable American accent is eve more impressive. Lastly, his interest to push himself to learn new skills such as boxing, DJing, and producing makes him a modern renaissance man. It seems that Idris gets better with age and so do his looks (#teamsaltandpepper). I look forward to seeing what else he ventures into.

1.Morris Chestnut

I am sure a lot of you are wondering why Morris Chestnut is #1 on my list. Well, Morris caught my eyes since the start of “The Best man” movie series where he was young and had hair. Since then, I believe he is the embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome. He also keeps his personal life out of the limelight which adds some mystery to his persona. As such, he pulls off the “I’m a grown man” vibe very well and I think that is what most of us ladies want in a man. I never thought the words morris and chestnut could come together to have such appeal. This goes to show that sometimes the name does not make the man as the man decides the fate of his name.

Feel free to comment If I left out a major man crush of yours. 🙂 ❤

YOU ARE ART. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The way you breathe and live is art. No one can do it like you. So love yourself as such. Treat yourself like the rare Mona Lisa and protect yourself from people with the wrong energy.  If someone says you love yourself too much that says more about their self-esteem than yours.

If you are a creator, create for yourself before blessing others with your gift. As some of you may know, I dabble in painting. When I first drawing portraits, I was inspired to paint other people some of whom disappointed me because they didn’t appreciate it enough. Therefore, I decided to be my own muse and started painting myself. I remember that during that time, one of my male friends came to visit and upon seeing the painting, he questioned why I was painting myself instead of other people. I found his question weird because he owned a blog and wrote a lot about his life story so as an artist he should have understood that you do not have to apologize for self-love.

I don’t know if this is a male ideology but I always laugh at the thought that women should not acknowledge their own beauty. The thought that women should be humble because “there are supposedly more beautiful women out there” that they should not celebrate their beauty. This reminds me of the One Directions lyrics for their song “beautiful” where they state “you don’t know that you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful”. In my opinion, that’s a load of crap. A woman who recognizes that she is beautiful should be more attractive than a woman who has self-esteem issues.

Anyone who recognizes their beauty, male or female, is infinitely more beautiful than those who are afraid to acknowledge theirs. So let us all love ourselves louder. If someone tells you that you’re too proud, tell them they’re not proud enough. Remember even Beyoncé has haters but even she doesn’t let them stop her from showering herself with the best maternity photo shoots.

 In this society of fast relationships and mistrust, one thing that we’re all hopelessly searching for is unconditional love. However, the way I’ve seen this play out is sometimes irrational. For example, in my relationships this has played out as a way for the person you’re dating to excuse their flaws. We’ve all heard of people saying or said so ourselves that we can’t love someone who doesn’t accept us for who we are. But what happens if you have a tragic flaw such as addiction? Should you still expect your love interest to love you unconditionally? It’s selfish but we usually always expect people to love us unconditionally. But doesn’t the person who wants better for you actually love you more than the person who is alright with your tragic flaws.

Take God for example (if you believe  in a higher power), God loves us all unconditionally but he expects us to strive to be more like him. We were all created in his likeness and he expects us to please him by following his word (The Bible). Most of us accept and understand this so when we sin, we repent, and aim to do better. Why? Because there’s this thing called hell that we fear but most importantly because we know that our relationship with God will improve when we stop engaging in things that God does not approve of. So in that case why is it difficult for us to accept constructive criticism from our significant others on why we can improve as individuals and as their partner.

Some people say that if you put God first in a relationship, there’ll be less conflict. I tend to agree because if you’re both striving to be better for God then you’ll be even better for each other. I recognize that this applies more to heavy issues like addiction, laziness, and gluttony which are sins and applies less to issues like your partner chewing loudly. However, those lesser issues are things that we can tolerate and live with.  So my advice would be to keep God first in your relationship and the rest will take care of itself.

I would like to put a disclaimer that even if someones claims to be putting God first, you should judge them by their actions and not by their words. For example, if you’re dating someone with drinking issues and he claims to put God first yet he still drinks to a stupor, then it might be time to call it quits and find someone who is truly committed to improving himself. For my non-religious people, you can take religion out of this and still stick to the principle of striving for greatness for both you and your significant other.

As you may know from one of my first posts, drinking irresponsibly is one of my turn offs. Feel free to share your turn-offs below.