Is There A Such Thing As A Genuine F*ckboy?
After a hiatus, I decided that I would give the dating world another try after much contemplating. Honestly, I wasn't too excited to dive back in after hearing horror stories from my single friends. The dating world was just as I'd left it...complicated. Their most frequented ways of being contacted were still via social media, and the timeframe of a man asking them for pictures that weren't already posted on social media after a decent conversation was 1.2 hours. Is this what I had to look forward to?
It was one thing to be open to dating, it was another to actually be approached at the right time by the right guy.
On a recent mini vacation to see a friend, I was approached by several men within a 48-hour period. I can't lie, the trip helped me in more ways than one. It confirmed I wasn't completely invisible and men still approached women. I learned that while most f*ckboys are easy to spot, others have perfected setting themselves apart by becoming the "genuine f*ckboy".
What's a Genuine F*ckboy, you ask?
He's the guy that comes off sincere until you truly dissect his words and intentions. For instance, he'll replace complimenting your looks with the new cliché, "I like your vibe" or "I like your energy". I'm sure I'd heard that at least five times on my short trip from the men I met. He thinks this makes him stand out from the other guys that are only attracted to your physical attributes. Trust me, he is attracted to you if he approached you.
I quickly noticed that the Genuine F*ckboy likes to skip or even rush steps. He'll quickly try to point out that you have a connection before you can even establish a true one. Somehow, he skates past the stage of first becoming friends. He's smooth and swift with his words. He speaks of plans for the future such as vacations, five-year plans, and romanticized gestures all before you've gone on your first official date. It's almost as if he's rehearsed his lines a hundred times before getting to you. Initially, you can get swept away at the thought of it all. Genuine F*ckboys tend to lay it on thick with the flattery.
The Genuine F*ckboy tends to have a good job.
He is taking care of business. In fact, he may have his own business. He's successful in his own lane, ambitious, money-conscious, and checks a few other boxes on your list. However, he tends to use his "busyness" to be conveniently unavailable when it counts. Of course, he'll have a grand gesture to try and make up for it, but what's the real reason he can't keep to a commitment? He commits to his trips with friends, he commits to showing up to work on time, he even commits to his car note and mortgage that he pays monthly ON TIME. Yet, he hasn't deemed you to be in favor of receiving a respectable time commitment. It always has to be convenient for him, otherwise things can become flaky. Often, his job is the number one excuse. And who wants to argue about his proactive ambitions? Not a woman who respects a man and his hustle. As a result, you fall silent.
The Genuine F*ckboy isn't always aware that he is one.
Because he is sometimes highly sought by women, he gives himself a pat on the back comparing himself to other men that he feels are subpar to him economically. He isn't looking for a handout from you. He has graduated past asking you juvenile questions such as your favorite color, food, and drink because he knows how to start and continue good conversation. Yes, ladies, it is flattering. But let's be honest, it is part of his charm. While you may enjoy the dates, the flowers sent to your job, and the couples' game nights hosted at your best friend's house, you realize this man still hasn't mentioned having an exclusive relationship with you. If you mention it, he says that you guys should just go with the flow because things are going good. This is in alignment of typical F*ckboy behavior.
The Genuine F*ckboy leaves you dwelling in limbo and yet you don't push the subject further because he brings more to the table than most of the men you dated in the past two years combined. While he may be skipping steps in order to Netflix and chill at your place after two weeks, communicate mostly through text for his convenience, or rapidly fire off questions to rightfully gauge your sanity, exclusivity isn't a hurdle he's leaping to get over. You realize this isn't going anywhere and quickly become stagnant.
Before you know it, you realize that he's nothing more than an F*ckboy that has managed to reinvent himself to stand amongst all the rest.
Perhaps in the future, he'll shed his F*ckboy demeanor and become a great partner, but we aren't waiting around for that day to come. In the meantime, we'll thank him for the dinner date, the midday text message exchanges, and the conversations that have reminded us to never forget to ask the important questions all while we move on. We won't allow him to waste our time, nor will we waste his. No one is perfect and we all have room to grow, but let's be fair and remember that we are no more than F*ckgirls if we're allowing a man to pay for dates and waste his spare time if we know we have no intentions of things going further.
Though newly open to the idea of dating, I've learned that a lot of things haven't changed. Now I know to watch out for the seemingly Genuine F*ckboy.
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CB Nicole is a millennial whose passion to live a God-led life has inspired her to use her life lessons and messes to inspire others. Each unpredictable day makes for a new unpredictable journey that she's ready to conquer.
From Heartbreak To Healing: The Multifaceted Journey Of Nazanin Mandi
Nazanin Mandi is never out of options.
About a year ago, the 37-year-old life coach and actress was navigating life after divorce and determined to experience homeownership for the first time as a single woman. She’d been married to the R&B singer Miguel for three years, following a long-term relationship that started when she was 18 years old. But, in 2022, she filed for divorce. It was certainly the most public change she made but, in reality, it was just one of many decisions to refocus and reach her full potential in recent years.
“During my 20s, I was not ready for more. I was living a really crazy life. It was unpredictable. I was helping somebody else grow. It was a lot, and it was intense. I was not pouring into myself the way I should’ve been,” she says in an xoNecole exclusive.
Still, as Mandi worked to get to know herself and her needs during this new phase of life, she realized the home she’d purchased wasn’t a good fit. Overwhelmed by the echoing of her voice in the spacious home, she had a breakdown and called her cousin, who immediately suggested she lease the home and live somewhere else. “I woke up in my house, and I was like, ‘This is not it for me,” she says. “All those years, I had been accustomed to living a certain way [and] in a certain house, so I bought myself a house like [my old home]. But my family was not the same. Waking up in that house by myself, it highlighted the divorce. I was like, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do this. This is not it.’ My life has changed, so my choices need to change.” At that moment, Mandi became open to the idea that there wasn’t one set way to achieve ownership on her own.
“I feel so much better. I’m in a smaller place. My best friend lives a minute from me and I can walk to her house,” she tells me during a Zoom interview from her home one recent afternoon in early February. In the past two years, she hasn’t just been advising other people on varying circumstances, she’s also been healing herself.
"During my 20s, I was not ready for more. I was living a really crazy life. It was unpredictable. I was helping somebody else grow. It was a lot, and it was intense. I was not pouring into myself the way I should’ve been."
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
If supporters began following Nazanin Mandi because of her conventional beauty or the contagious, bright, white smile she often wears in many of her photos, that’s likely not the reason they’ve stuck around. Instead, she’s amassed a following based on her transparency about her own anxiety and depression, along with the encouraging messages of self-acceptance, gratitude, ambition, and humility that are often sprinkled into her social media posts.
In an era where looking at Instagram photos of models can often lead to feelings of self-doubt and insecurity, Nazanin Mandi is determined to be more than eye candy. She’s food for her follower’s souls, too.
Since being recruited to model while dining at an In-N-Out at 10 years old, Mandi has worked in many areas of entertainment. The Valencia, California native has modeled for brands such as Olay, Savage X Fenty, and Good American. As a teen, she sang at Carnegie Hall and auditioned for season 1 of American Idol, making it all the way to Hollywood before producers disqualified her for lying about her age. (Mandi was 15 at the time, and contestants had to be at least 16 years old.) Mandi has acted, too, including appearing on Disney’s That’s So Raven as a teenager and on the BET+ series Games People Play and the Prime series Á La Carte in more recent years.
In recent years, though, she’s also expanded her professional goals outside of entertainment, too. After becoming a certified life coach in 2020, Mandi launched the membership platform You Bloome in 2022 with the hopes of providing wellness services to others, including her self-published gratitude journal. “I wish I had access to something like You Bloome earlier in my own life,” she writes on the company’s website. The actress, who has been forthcoming about her struggles with anxiety and depression, has never had a life coach, but credits therapy as a tool that “really, really saved me and it laid the foundation to who I am becoming.”
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
"I’m trying to find the balance between living life and knowing that whatever is meant for me is going to happen, but also know that I’m doing everything in my power to make those things happen and better myself."
While she’s always had a nurturing personality, Mandi says her interest in becoming a life coach was inspired by the women who would message her for advice on social media. “I would answer them back. It really sparked a fire within myself to help people,” she says.
You Bloome currently has three membership tiers, ranging in price from $2.99 to $39.99 per month. The highest tier offers a motivational text message twice a week, two live, group coaching sessions per month, and more. “We get emotional. We cry. We laugh. It’s really beautiful. I’ve built close relationships with my members through this. It’s been inspiring both ways,” Mandi says of the sessions. Still, the founder says she hopes to take on more motivational and keynote speaking opportunities in the future with the hopes of impacting as many people as possible.
And, she’s hoping to do all of this while continuing to explore a career as an entertainer.
At this point in her life, Mandi says she’s gained enough perspective on modeling, music, and acting to realize what she wants to prioritize moving forward. “We are going full force with acting,” she says, noting her goal is “to book a series regular or a film that impacts my career and the world.” She plans to continue to model, too, but has no desire to pursue music.
“I don’t want any part of that because I know what that life entails,” she says. “I don’t want to tour. I don’t want to do any of that. That is not where my heart is at.”
Credit: Solmaz Saberi
If you ask Mandi, she’ll tell you she feels most comfortable in front of a camera, but she’ll also admit that she’s recently experienced a lot of imposter syndrome when thinking about her acting career. “I think it’s a fear of not succeeding,” she says. If anything, she adds, she’s harder on herself now than she’s ever been. “There were distractions before. There’s no distractions now,” she says. “I’m putting pressure on myself for no reason.”
This is where the life coach’s own personal healing comes into play. Mandi says she’s learning recently that “slow progress is still big progress at the end of the day.”
“Currently, I’m trying to find the balance between living life and knowing that whatever is meant for me is going to happen, but also know that I’m doing everything in my power to make those things happen and better myself,” she adds.
Still, one of Mandi’s strengths is that she doesn’t feel the pressure to limit herself to just one passion. From working as a life coach to pursuing acting, she has given herself grace to explore all other dreams.
“We can be allowed to be many different things in this lifetime,” she says. “As people, our identities are allowed to expand. Don’t put us in a fucking box. I cannot live that way anymore.”
For more of Nazanin, follow her on Instagram @nazaninmandi.
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Featured image by Solmaz Saberi
'Raising Kanan''s Hailey Kilgore Talks Seeing Herself In Jukebox & Broadway Background
Hailey Kilgore, who has brought the character Jukebox to life on Power Book III: Raising Kanan for the past three seasons, was working hard in show business long before landing the role on coveted Starz franchise. She's already a Tony- and Grammy-nominated talent whose credits include the Jennifer Hudson-led Aretha Franklin biopic Respect and the Tony-winning revival of Once on This Island.
Hailey may play a teen on the Mekai Curtis-centered series but she's been training in singing, acting, and performance since the tender age of 9—that's 16 years now. If you take a look at her social media profiles, it will almost make you do a double take as her real personality couldn't be further from what's depicted on the show—proving just how talented she really is. The Broadway veteran, who is gearing up to release her first album, is what many would describe a girl's girl wearing loads of sequins, gowns, and serving face!
This will prompt you to dig a little deeper to find out more about the girl who is a multi-hyphenate and earned two major nominations before even making it on the big screen.
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xoNecole caught up Hailey as season 3 came to an end and was surprised to learn that although they may be completely different people, her real life is mirroring what's going on with Jukebox in Raising Kanan. "I really made the epiphany season 3." She continued, "[Jukebox] just wants to be seen. She works so hard, she's a really sweet girl. She has a beautiful spirit and she just wants people to see her—to see how hard she works. I feel that right now. I'm like, please just see me. I know you love Jukebox...but there's a super cool girl in here and she's got a lot to say. A lot to contribute to the world artistically."
She even delved more into her background, telling us about the extensive training and hard work she's put in to get to this point. "I started training when I was 9. I trained in acting, singing, and performance." She further explained, "I did my first job when I was 12, so I've been doing this for awhile. Performing is what I love. I've always said I wanted to be Beyoncé when I grew up...I'm really blessed to have the resume and the background that I do."
The latest season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan has come to a close but in true fashion, Hailey is still hard at work. Her first single "Drama Queen" is out now and her debut album will be released on May 3. It's safe to say that Hailey is having her moment. One can't deny that she's worked hard for it and we can't wait to see what's next!
Watch the full interview below.
Hailey Kilgore AKA Jukebox on 'Raising Kanan' Talks Broadway Background
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