If you don’t have one, get one asap for happiness
by Lyssa Myska Allen, who still needs to find her alter-ego to be happy.
Beyonce has Sasha Fierce. Jordan has Manta Ray. Mara has Fuck You Snail.
What are these? Alter-egos. You need one.
Beyonce has spoken about being able to embody this confident, sassy woman on stage that she doesn’t think she is in her real life: Sasha Fierce.
When Jordan was young, he would do things that our parents expressly told him not to—jumping over fences, scaling walls—and our mom would ask him in an exasperated voice, “Jordan, why would you do that?!”
He looked at her, pointed to the Rays ball cap he was wearing, and said, “I didn’t. Manta Ray did!” Manta Ray allowed my brother, who more or less wanted to follow the rules and listen to my parents, to disobey them in a safe way.
Mara is a confident young woman who sometimes comes across as shy. She has a hand motion that looks like a snail coming out of its shell and when she does it, she says in a half-growl, “Fuck you, I’m not shy, I’m CONFIDENT!”
These are alter-egos.
Alter-egos allow their users freedom to express something they don’t normally feel comfortable expressing. Similar to embracing your dark side, embracing your alter ego can give you a fresh perspective and boost of confidence in your own body and psyche. It can be fleeting—like Manta Ray, whom my brother no longer calls on—or it can last a lifetime—like Sasha Fierce will as long as Beyonce performs.
Don’t have an alter-ego? Get one. Make her up. Draw him out. Let her come to you. However you find your alter-ego, find him.
Image: Some rights reserved by gillyberlin