Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?
Interpretation
The quote questions why individuals allow others, especially strangers, to impact their self-worth.
Helena Bonham Carter's quote highlights the importance of self-esteem and the tendency of some individuals to rely on external validation from others to determine their value. It serves as a reminder that one’s self-worth should originate from within rather than being contingent upon the opinions or judgments of strangers, who may not truly understand them.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-confidence.
Sometimes I get it right and I sometimes I get it wrong. But fashion is all about having fun. I think fashion has been hijacked by the fashion industry creating rules on what one should wear and I feel like breaking the mold and seeing that the world won’t crumble.
I just went and got an agent because I thought I can create my own world - you can't right your own life, but you can escape to a world where you can have control.
Sometimes I go, “What am I doing with my life?” But then I get letters from young women, or people come up to me, and they say, “You’ve made such a difference to my confidence.” And that is a good thing. I should read more fan mail though. I’m crap at responding.
My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family, it went into sudden widescreen.
Very early on, you figure out that you put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers. There's a different commodity. There's the Helena Bonham Carter that everyone thinks they know, who really has nothing to do with me. But you just have to let that go.
Wear what you feel comfortable with. People say nasty things about what I wear in the street. I'm always in worst dressed lists, but you just have to dress for yourself and nobody else.
The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody's interested in somebody who's just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing - there is no latest thing. It's all rubbish.
Through the senses, anger comes, and sorrow comes.
I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top.
Most of us are taught from an early age to pay far more attention to signals coming from other people than from within. We are encouraged to ignore our own needs and wants and to concentrate on living up to others expectations.
I felt in a lot of instances I was deliberately being put through stress because when you're a guy who generates money, people have a vested interest in controlling you.
Some gave me soft words and some blunt, some made excuses, some promises, some only lied. In the end words are just wind.
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