Barbies Don't Say Sorry
September 7, 2023
I enjoyed watching Barbie the movie directed by Greta Gerwig. As I have been following the interviews and discussions around it, I ran into an interview of Margot Robbie, who played as Barbie. In the interview she shared a important lesson that she learned from watching the Barbie’s official YouTube channel. That is, swapping the preventive “sorry” for the word “thank you”. For example, instead of saying “sorry, I can’t do that”, say “thank you for understanding that I couldn’t do that”.
As women, we apologize too much, and we tend to hold a negative tone when we talk to and about ourselves. Inspired by the call to ditch the sorry reflex, I came up with a list of more expressions to swap out. This list is growing. What do you want to swap out from our voices?
| Instead of saying | Say |
|---|---|
| Sorry for bothering you. | Thank you for your patience. |
| I didn’t do … | I want to do … |
| I don’t have … | I am working towards getting … |
| I will be just fine without … | I need … |
| I do … because I am scared of … | I do … because I love … |
| I might be wasting people’s time. | They choose to spend time on me. |
| They are just being nice complimenting my work. | My work has proved meaningful. |
| I am totally outshined by … | There is an opportunity to learn from … |
| It is too late for … | Is there a way to work around it? |
| My body is not … enough. | My body has supported me through … |
- Posted on:
- September 7, 2023
- Length:
- 2 minute read, 263 words
- See Also: