The Duff

 

What would you do if all your years of being content with school life is suddenly shattered upon your discovery that all the while, you've been the DUFF?! 

What's duff you ask? I'm right there with you, I didn't know what the word meant nor have I heard of it but apparently, it is an acronym for Designated Ugly Fat Friend (D-U-F-F).Yeah, you can google it too just like I did and after it gives you a meaning related to flour pudding, Urban Dictionary will tell you the acronym I just wrote above.

And so we're back to my initial question: what would you do? 

Fortunately, with the magic of books and movies, you don't need to imagine it to see what might actually happen!

Last weekend, I chanced upon a DVD copy of the movie entitled The Duff and after reading the synopsis written on the back cover, I knew it was one movie I had to watch and I was right! 

 

It's actually a movie adaptation of a novel by Kody Keplinger about a teenager whose life changes upon rudely learning she was the duff to her two prettier best friends and how she managed to accept it and even used it to her advantage later. You have to watch the movie for the more juicy details though as you won't get that here! ;-) 

Watching the movie made me go back to my high school and college days when I had my share of challenges (although hers was a little too extreme) because I too was different. I wasn't one to follow what everyone else was doing and cared not much about self-image and conformity!I was my own person and that made me weird. ;-) 

Now this movie has a lot of parallelism to real life; bullying, cyber bullying and body image are just some of the serious real-life issues tackled in the movie and how with simple carelessness or premeditated click of a button, one's life can turn totally upside down! 

Although there are non-child-friendly language and scenes every now and then, overall, I think the movie is a great watch because of the take-away lesson from it. 

That no matter what people think about you; how you feel about yourself and how you see yourself is what truly matters and if you learn to embrace your true self and focus on what's positive about it, that's how you'll make a difference and make your mark! :-)

While watching the movie, I saw myself too as a duff but never mind, I guess we're all duffs because fact of the matter is "no matter who you are, there will always be someone else prettier than you!"

But just because they are prettier than you, doesn't always mean their smarter too!! No one can't have it all! ;-) 

 Here is a trailer of the movie for your viewing pleasure...

Now, I'll go and find the book because for sure there are more juicy stuff left out by the movie. 

Oh and I found a copy of the book here if you'd like to read it too! Enjoy!