Bridgette Alvarez put her emotions on the line this morning when she made the vulnerable choice to reveal her inner life to all 158 of her Twitter followers.
In a post timestamped 11:24am, Alvarez shared a screenshot of a text conversation with her friend Maeve Lewis. Centered in the screenshot is a key snippet of textual dialogue between Alvarez and Lewis, during which Alvarez made a silly joke.
“Normally, when people screenshot their texts, they choose convos where the other person says something funny,” explained Alvarez. “It’s their way of being like, ‘look at this thing my mom said’ or ‘look how clever my friend is’ or whatever. I don’t know, I’ve never done that.”
When asked what prompted her to show off her own intentional joke instead of waiting for an organic moment when something funny happened, she elaborated, “Honestly, I’m just really funny, and I wanted other people to see that.”
Maeve Lewis, the texts’ original recipient, was not as effusive with her praise when assessing the quality of Alvarez’s joke.
“I know I responded ‘lolol,’” commented Lewis, “But the joke was just okay. Sort of corny. I didn’t literally laugh out loud out loud. I don’t think that’s even a real thing.”
At the end of the day, Lewis determined that Alvarez’s silly joke did not deserve to be enshrined in its own post. She went so far as to say it barely warranted a “haha” iMessage reaction.
In defense of her decision, Alvarez explained that she wanted young girls out there to see that it’s okay to be really funny and toot your own horn about it. “When I first posted the screenshot, I was afraid that people might not look at me the same way again. I was no longer the person they thought I was. But I wanted them to see that, no matter how clever my little text jokes are, I’m still me.”
Undeterred by her detractors and her appallingly low “like” count, Alvarez kept the post on her timeline. She said every day, she wakes up thinking of all the funny little girls out there, telling their own silly little jokes in private, not knowing if their behavior is normal. “I want to be a role model for those scared little girls.”
As of publication, Alvarez’s Twitter is set to private, and none of her 158 followers are children.
When asked what she wants to be remembered for from her time on this earth, Alvarez took a contemplative pause before saying, “Look, am I perfect? Far from it. But am I funny over text, and do I need everybody in my modest social sphere to be aware of it? Absolutely.”
