The best advice I've ever received

I'm 25 soon. Although a boring birthday and definitely not a milestone, it is bang on mid-twenties! I always thought I'd have my shit together by 25 (and although I definitely don't), I thought I'd share some of the best advice I've received, so hopefully by 30 things may be different? 

‘’Never, ever expose your bare face to the sun’’

Joan Collins was on Piers Morgan once, and Piers was probing her for her anti-ageing secrets. Although I suspect she’s probably had a little extra help here and there, one thing she said totally stuck with me. She said past the age of 21 she never exposed her bare face to the sun, which is the number one cause of wrinkles and ageing skin. As part of the ‘’sun bed generation’’ I always feel really sad when I see women my age or even younger going into sun bed shops or spending 9+ hours in the sun on holiday. Not only are they putting their skin at risk but the chances of developing skin cancer are dramatically increased if you’re not careful in the sun. Since I heard Joan’s words of wisdom I’ve not gone bare faced in the sun and always buy moisturiser and foundation that contain SPF. Shallow motivations or not – I definitely wouldn’t mind looking like Joan Collins when I’m her age! Sunshine is awesome but there are safe ways to enjoy it that don't put your health at risk. (Plus there's always fake tan, once you get past the stale biscuit smell and your partner accepts your decision to spend one night a week covered in brown paint you're good to go without hindering your health). 

‘’You are what you eat’’

Only when I’d tried almost every diet, eliminated 5 food groups and experienced multiple weight fluctuations did I truly understand this mantra. Aside from weight, what you eat – and the quality of it plays a huge part in overall health and the prevention of various diseases. You can’t swing a cat on Netflix these days without finding a documentary focused on nutrition, which is what completely changed my outlook on food. We live in a society where there’s a pill to solve almost every problem, but actually eating well and paying attention to what you eat can help ease and even prevent these problems. I love pizza as much as the next person, but to avoid a week of having a pizza like face I try to limit these to one a week. Vegetables are the way forward!!!

‘’Intelligence is the one thing nobody can ever take away from you’’

Bless my dad. The wisest person I know who probably holds the world record for most viewed WW2 documentaries. In a desperate bid to motivate me to study for my GCSE’s he threw all sorts of clichés and even financial bribes in my direction. One thing he did say however, that has stuck with me since the tender age of 16 is that intelligence (and by default education) are both things nobody can ever take away from you. You can never really know enough or have enough qualifications. You can lose your looks, your partner and even your job but you'll always have intelligence, which is always the starting block for building yourself up again. At 24 I appreciate this more than ever and try to push myself to learn and investigate things that hadn't occurred to me before. For example - ''Koala bears'' aren't bears at all. Interesting.
 (Plus all this is useful when you NEED to beat your boyfriend at the annual Christmas quiz, see smug face below. There is no such thing as useless trivia).

‘’What you put on the internet is written in pen not pencil’’

This is by far the best bit of advice I would give anyone! I remember a teacher telling me this at school and me thinking what a lame way to look at it - but how true. Social media is great and dominates a lot of our free time these days but as someone who regularly over shares sometimes I have to stop myself and think whether or not a post could come back to bite me…the last thing anyone wants is a potential employer/boyfriend Googling you and seeing what you got up to in Ibiza in 2012…ahem. Even after something is ''deleted'' it can still be accessed, haunting you and ruining job/relationship/life prospects! Ultimately - if you're gonna be an idiot on holiday, don't put it on the internet :).