Why I'm Simultaneously Addicted to and Repulsed by Babe Walker

By Karolyn Castaldo on October 27, 2012

While doing homework last night, I found myself on Twitter, like any good college student would be. Scrolling through, I came across the tweet, “If I wasn’t so tired I’d politely ask you to stop talking.” I laughed for a minute, appreciating how true that actually could be some days, and clicked on the link to the blog White Girl Problems. After pressing “Older Posts” about 100 times, I realized I’d wasted an hour on this site and I couldn’t tell if I wanted to strangle this girl or go get a coffee with her.

Photo from babewalker.com

Meet Babe Walker, a motherless snob from Bel-Air whose father is a big-time LA lawyer. Think of a crude Cher from the 90′s classic, Clueless and you get the idea. Some things that make me love to hate and hate to love her: she obsesses over losing her virginity to her gay best friend (does it, gets it on video), talks incessantly about Atkins and says things like, “Gwyneth’s was the model for my labiaplasty.” If nothing else, Babe Walker could be compared to a horrible car crash. They’re terrible, but you just can’t stop watching.

Obviously, Babe Walker and the WGP empire is fictionalized because, let’s face it, no one could be that rude, lazy, and stuck up and still be so brilliantly funny. What started from a simple tweet hash-tagged #whitegirlproblems in 2010 slowly evolved into it’s own Twitter page, then blog, then book, all written by three unexpected authors;  brothers Tanner Cohen (25) and David Oliver Cohen (31), and Lara Schoenhals (27). In an interview, Schoenhals says, “[o]ur book is a culmination of this moment in pop culture that celebrates women who have a lot of money, a lot of shit to bitch about—but no real reason to be unhappy,” and that’s exactly what Babe is.

So, do we aspire to be like Babe? Yes and no. As college students, we all realize that being a lawyer requires going to law school, not asking Daddy for an entry-level position, and that spending $200,000 on one trip to Barney’s will get us sent to shopping rehab and more importantly, a lot of debt. However, Babe doesn’t give a crap what anyone thinks of her; she is who she is. “You like her because she’s not likable and she doesn’t care. And we would all love to be that way,” says author Tanner Cohen. While there isn’t ever really a moral to WGP, the resounding theme is that you hate her because you secretly wish you could be like her; she’s blunt and as real as a fictional, white, rich girl who complains a lot can be.

Read a sample of White Girl Problems or check out Babe’s blog today! And lucky for us, rumor has it that a new book is on the way.

 

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