“Men always use that - don’t they? - as their defining compliment. ‘She’s a cool girl’.” - Amy Dunne, Gone Girl. She’s not like other girls, she’s a cool girl. In her 2012 bestseller Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn gave this trope a name and proceeded to savagely tear it to pieces. If we look at cool girls onscreen - and at celebrities who often play this persona for the public - we can identify the specific elements that make up this character’s DNA: she’s one of the guys, she has

“Turns out I’m 100% that bitch.” - Lizzo No one celebrates Lizzo like Lizzo. The singer has become synonymous with self-love and being your own hype man. But what is it that makes Lizzo’s message of self-love seem so new - even revolutionary? Lizzo’s rejection of traditional feminine humility arrived at a moment when women have increasingly begun to own their power - to speak up for themselves, and stop apologising or downplaying their accomplishments. And while her breakthro