Lily Allen

A common interview question is something along the lines of "If you could have dinner anybody in the world, who would it be?" While I would like to come across as knowledgeable and cultured by answering with Madeleine Albright or Nelson Mandela, I would not. If I could share a meal with anyone on Earth, it would probably have to be Lily Allen.

But I'm not ashamed of that. While it would be absolutely amazing to meet the first female Secretary of State of the US or the man responsible for the end of Apartheid in South Africa, I would instead choose to dine with a British pop star.

Of course, I do have my reasons for feeling this way; I wouldn't say Lily Allen unless I meant it. First of all, I'm a huge fan of her work, which I think is a prerequisite for anyone being the answer to this question. Second, she's a good person. Despite her having the mouth of a sailor, Lily Allen never uses her language to rip on anyone, and she even attempted to remove a guy who made racist remarks off Twitter. But lastly, and the more important of the three reasons, I love her attitude. I'll extend point number 3 into a new paragraph.

Lily Allen's attitude is one of the best out there. I admire her for trying to ban the guy from Twitter who made racist remarks, because I don't think a lot of people would want to take a stand on something like that. She clearly doesn't take shit from anybody, and I'm incapable of saying that I can do the same. I've lived my life afraid of what other people thought about me, even if I didn't know at all: My mood can quickly turn sour if someone is giving me a strange look on the street because I think something's wrong with me. I worry that people make fun of me for something that I said or did once I leave the room. But I don't think Lily Allen gives a crap about what people think about her. I think Lily Allen lives her life the way she sees fit and tells everyone who tells her otherwise to go fuck themselves. That's the kind of attitude that I want for myself. I often feel held back because of my insecurities and self-consciousness, but I know that I could be a lot happier if I just let loose and stopped caring about what people thought about me.

And Lily Allen's music helps me do just that. When I listen to her, I think a bit of her attitude rubs off on me. I start seeing the world through her point of view, and it's a lot more enjoyable than my perspective. My lens is clouded by the outside world and my own inhibitions, while hers is clear and focused on whatever she wants to achieve. While millions of others have had this same perspective of the world and way of thinking, Lily Allen's has the biggest direct impact on me because I get to listen to her every day through her music. She is unknowingly helping me to become the person I want to be.

So that's why Lily Allen is one of the coolest people on Earth, and why I would probably prefer to have dinner with her than with Barack Obama.