Meghan’s birthday video

[Greenlittle]

I like the idea and I like the video. (Not that keen on the big desk) And I though MM looked...alive!

Not sure who the other woman was. But there was good chemistry.

Let's all remind our selves. It's not who you know. It what what you know about who knows. Even if it gets ten women back into the work place. That's great. It won't work for everyone. Some people deserve that 40mins in a room to show their skills, get advice..

I had my 1hr with a mentor and it changed my life after maternity leave. Not everyone goes back to the same job.

For those who gave been out of work for a long time, a mentor in the industry you want to join is great.

This very similar to how smart work is. They don't just hive out office clothes. They offer one to one pre-interviewing and look at your cv and changes you can make.

Let's not poo poo ideas out hate.

PreparationPreparationPrep
There's a very fine line between self importance and unapologetically confident.

If the men in some workplaces I've worked in are anything to go by being self-important, over-confident and being good at self-promotion in areas beyond your specialism is something many (frequently better qualified and more competent) women correctly identify as arrogant self-importance. It's just as annoying when a woman displays those behaviours too.

Just came across it, it's an impressive list of participants.

People could learn a lot from these individuals and organisations.

Randomly, an info/advert featuring Ciara and Gwyneth Paltrow talking about all sorts of things in life came up on my youtube, it was quite good.

Just got reminded by the poster who presumes to know who MM's friends are, I did not even know she knew Gabriel Union till this year, she GU produced some old pics of them. Also Katherine McPhee was in London and said she did not know MM that well, just her dh and H were friends, but left out the fact that they had arranged the Canada property for them - MM was in Canada at that point.

The bottom line is...there are MNers who are totally determined to hate absolutely anything she does.
It wouldn't matter how clever, how altruistic, how selfless, how well received it was...they will hate it.
Because it's Meghan
And they can't move on.

@Greenlittle

I liked the laptop on top of books. I’ve done that for zoom calls!

I wonder if the exchange was impromptu or whether they had rehearsed it?

It wasn’t an exchange - both ‘halves’ were filmed separately and spliced together.

Roussette
You're right there are, but there's also posters who form an opinion of a public figure based on the actions of a public figure.
Too often people having an opinion on Megan's actions in the public domain are met with "everyone hates meghan, why does everyone hate her, the haters are always going to hate... but what about Kate, what about other royals".

I don't believe most people have a strongly held affinity or hatred for a stranger.

@LolaSmiles there are plenty of people who would like to see M to sit in a corner and not be seen again. Mostly women I might add which seems odd in itself. Even after so long MN are still hoping she will fall flat on her face by ridiculing anything she does thinking it will make a difference - honestly the contradictions on MN are astounding at times. So she is unapologetically confident in that she will not sit down - she will stand up and do what she is good at and she seems to be doing it and succeeding which Is why some posters on here are absolutely sweating!

That's quite the list @Mummy194. And not all celebrities either, some more grassroots organisations and social enterprises too.

Lola. I'd like to believe you but what in god's name is there to dislike with a vengeance this particular initiative, I do not know.

Women helping women to me but no...it's attention seeking, showing off a mansion, pathetic, all for publicity blah blah . All because it's Meghan

Really quite sad

That list is impressive and I don't doubt it will be well received by the women who are lucky enough to get access to this.

@StartupRepair

I have never felt manipulated by Mandela, but inspired by his life of extraordinary service, courage and humility.

Which makes sense. Mandela and Meghan are not comparable at all. Mandela is up there with legends like Kwame Nkuruma & Steve Biko & people like Meghan & us can only be inspired by them.

Roussette
There's nothing to dislike with a vengeance about this.
I do think a reasonable amount of cynicism about any celebrity vanity project (which most turn out to be) is reasonable.

For me my reservation about this sort of initiative is it seems to rest on the principle that a chat to boost their confidence is a solution to the fairly major systemic issues facing women in the workplace. It's rare to celebrities to meaningfully engage with difficult issues over a long time frame because that's not how celeb PR works.

I follow Pregnant Then Screwed and they've been working hard to address real systemic issues, and many local and national organisation do the same, so I don't get gushing over privileged people's pet projects that barely scrape the surface.

@Viviennemary

She is totally full of self importance. I am not writing it for the sake of it. Many many people feel the same.

What does this mean exactly, like really really?

@Zuluqueen they were two people I felt so inspired by as a teenager. I’m struggling right now to think of comparable figures for today’s youth. Maybe Marcus Rashford?

As I've already mentioned, I think it's a great idea. I do think it highlights the difference between MM and the other royals though in that a lot of the role of a royal seems to be shining a light on other people doing a job ie sitting with people from one charity or another and finding out what they do. From the start I think MM's projects were designed to be a lot more impactful that just shining a light - the grenfell cookery book and smart works clothes line are two that come to mind. Had they have stayed in the U.K. for longer I really think she'd have made a huge difference to the way the royal family is ran.

Also the people commenting on her acting when she was good enough at it to be paid £50k an episode remind me of my dh on the sofa scratching his arse commenting on the skill (or lack of) of the Olympians.

So you call Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton, Amanda Gorman celebs??
Do you consider Stacey and Amanda over privileged people with pet projects?
Nothing could be further from the truth. What about the Doctors and Scientists? Are they just privileged celebs?
They are incapable of bringing anything to mentorship except a celeby PR type chat?

[quote PreparationPreparationPrep]@LolaSmiles there are plenty of people who would like to see M to sit in a corner and not be seen again. Mostly women I might add which seems odd in itself. Even after so long MN are still hoping she will fall flat on her face by ridiculing anything she does thinking it will make a difference - honestly the contradictions on MN are astounding at times. So she is unapologetically confident in that she will not sit down - she will stand up and do what she is good at and she seems to be doing it and succeeding which Is why some posters on here are absolutely sweating! [/quote]
Add to this, on MN and elsewhere there are those who really miss to hate watch her even when she is not showing her face. Even when she is not visible they seek her out, stalk her website and my news about her so that they can dissect her and pretend she seeks the limelight. This is odd. When some of us defend her we are called all sorts of names, I have already seen someone on this thread have a pop at Omid saying he is on here. It’s not right that she gets so much criticism when she isn’t even a working royal anymore. There is so sos much going on with the current royals that is worthy of criticism but crickets so some of us wonder Why?

Another example is Edward Enninful. He may be in celeb circles now -but he grew up on a council estate the son of immigrant parents, went to state schools etc etc. - Life was not easy for him and his siblings at all. He has now reached somewhere and is able to do a little or a lot to help someone else.

Roussette
I didn't say they were celebrities with pet projects.

The pet project here is Meghans, and as with any celebrity who sets up a pet project I reserve judgement and have a healthy amount of skepticism because too often they are superficially and fade away when the next big issue starts trending.

As an aside, I'm intrigued as to what mentoring Princess Beatrice or Eugenie, can't remember who signed up, is going to be giving to a woman who has been systemically shafted at various points in life.

[quote Caritas]@Skiptheheartsandflowers As one who likes to research and ascertain credibility, I might suggest you ponder more on the meaning of ‘caritas’, Latin for ‘truth’. Truth be told, I had dealings with this individual long before she met ‘Hapless Harry’ and the things stated about her in my pp (now taken down by the kind MN thought police) are all true. Might I direct you towards a blog called ‘Harry Markle’, which you might find enlightening...[/quote]
You may want to avail yourself of the Gav's much publicised Latin lessons.

Veritas is Latin for truth.
Caritas is Latin for charity.

I leave the reader to decide the appropriateness of either.

I wonder "why" on every single thread like this.
They're gone. They support themselves. They don't live here, Harry's not coming back, they have a great life with their little family in the US and what they are doing is good and getting better.

I think some posters need to just let go and accept it.
Maybe as @Zuluqueen says...start looking at what our tax funded royal family are doing.
What about the changing of laws to benefit their wealth whilst exempting themselves from the green laws we all have to adhere to??
Crickets on that

@Roussette

So you call Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton, Amanda Gorman celebs?? Do you consider Stacey and Amanda over privileged people with pet projects? Nothing could be further from the truth. What about the Doctors and Scientists? Are they just privileged celebs? They are incapable of bringing anything to mentorship except a celeby PR type chat?

This. I shouldn’t be shocked but I am. MM threads never disappoint.

Ok celebrity VANITY project not pet project. Your words

@LolaSmiles but what about her work with smart works and Grenfell doesn't that speak for itself and isn't it evidence of her commitment to the work she does? There is no denying She has a huge platform so isn't that a good thing that she also uses it to help others. So for those who say she only has the platform because she is an ex royal - and cannot erase that but a t least she is using it to partly help others. Not every project will work out but at least give it a chance rather than dismissing her before it's even got off the ground without any good reason.

This. I shouldn’t be shocked but I am. MM threads never disappoint
Meghan threads always go the same way:

Group 1: The Meghan haters, will probably find anything to hate on even as far as they didn't like her shoes or she wore sunglasses in the sun (minority)

Group 2: The majority, will have an opinion on the topic or issue at hand based on what a public figure does or says in the public domain. They have no strong feelings on Meghan as a person either way. (Most people)

Group 3: the Meghan fan club, who will take anything other than fawning adoration as a sign everyone hates Meghan and tell everyone off for not being suitably adoring of how wonderful, lovely, liberal, progressive Meghan. (minority)