There’s never a bad time to appreciate the celebrities who (against all odds) seem to be having a little fun in their lives. So in our new column, Love That for Her, we’ll be celebrating the women absolutely nailing life right now—may their joie de vivre inspire us all.
I’m bad at a lot of things—driving, math, organized sports; I’m going to end this list here before I hurt my own feelings—but figuring out when a celebrity is trying too hard to be quirky isn’t one of them. I’m not going to be so crass as to actually name fake-quirky celebrities here, but you know the type: they work really hard to convince you on social media that they just had to buy a pink flamingo set for their lawn or take a road trip to some out-of-the-way mini-attraction, even if it never entirely feels genuine.
Enter Drew Barrymore, the celebrity corrective to fake quirk. Barrymore first went semi-viral last week for discovering a hidden window in her house during a home renovation and documenting it on TikTok:
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“When something is so covered up and dark, you can pry it open and create light,” Barrymore rhapsodizes in the video, which was followed up this week with another TikTok of the actor laughing in the rain, glasses spattered with water, as she shouts: “Whenever you can go out into the rain, do not miss the opportunity!”
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I’m sorry, but this! More of this! This is genuine fun, or as genuine as fun can be when it’s recorded for posterity on social media! I love that Barrymore doesn’t feel confined to posting in an “appropriate” way for a celeb (a.k.a. boring shots of expensive wine on sumptuous patios and occasional glimpses of getting ready for interviews and red-carpet events). If I ever become a world-renowned actor—which seems unlikely, because acting is yet another thing I’m bad at—I hope I’m still taking the time to smell the roses, or, more accurately, to tell the world how excited I am that there’s a window in my bathroom beneath a deceptive, depressing wall of plaster.
One could argue that there’s a certain esprit de manic pixie dream girl about Barrymore’s TikToks, but I choose to see it differently. Barrymore has been open about the challenges that plagued her in her youth as a child star, legally becoming emancipated at 14 and spending time in rehab and in psychiatric institutions. Maybe I’m being overly eager to draw a line between her difficult past and her current joie de vivre, but is it so wrong if she wants to experience the full breadth of the little moments that make life great, whether it’s discovering a window you didn’t know you had or—in the worlds of the inimitable Natasha Bedingfeld—feeling the rain on your skin?