I’ve never filmed a “Day in My Life” vlog. No pastel smoothie bowls, no perfectly edited study montages, and no makeup routines at the crack of dawn, but I’ve definitely watched plenty of them.

There’s something comforting about seeing someone else’s life flow so beautifully: slow mornings, pretty coffee, and a trip to the library while soft, lo-fi music plays in the background. During study breaks, I scroll through vlogs of people at university I dream of attending or people working their dream jobs, watching them type away in cosy cafes or through clean city streets. A part of me can’t help thinking, “I hope I get to live like that someday.”

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An Aesthetic Life

The obsession with romanticising daily life isn’t new, but it’s reached a whole new level in the age of TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube vlogs. From “that girl” morning routines to study-with-me videos, we are beginning to find comfort, motivation, and even identity in these soft-edged, sepia-toned portrayals of life.

You might find yourself trying to live like that now, even if it's in the smallest ways. You could be rearranging your desk more, making morning coffee or tea in a glass mug just because it looks nice, and putting on lip balm before studying.

For a generation that’s constantly online, romanticising routine is a way of reclaiming control and beauty in a world where it often feels like everything's exploding into chaos. When everything feels overwhelming, with school, social life, and an uncertain future, romanticising small moments gives us something to hold onto and becomes an act of stability.

Moreover, there’s an oddly satisfying feeling in pretending life is a movie or a vlog, and we're the main character. Walking to school in the rain could turn cinematic, not inconvenient. It's a way to reaffirm to ourselves that we're not nobody. It's a way to tell ourselves that we matter and are valuable, even when our lives are filled with boring or catastrophic events, like making toast or doing homework.

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The Burnout

Eventually, though, the pressure to romanticise life transforms into perfectionism, and we may need a break. It stops being motivating and starts being performative. The days when I didn’t want to clean my room or skipped my skincare routine, I felt like I had failed, even though no one was watching or cared.

However, something I learned is that, instead of the vlogs or pictures we see on social media, romanticising life isn't about making life perfect. It's to notice things, like the sun shining through the window, the smell of shampoo, or that one playlist that makes studying less overwhelming.

You can still find beauty in your day without filming it or even pretending to film it. You can still dress cutely for school, just because. And you can still pretend you’re in a vlog, not for an audience, but to remind yourself that your life is happening and worth romanticising.

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Final Thoughts

We’re all just trying to make sense of life in our own ways, so if you’ve ever wanted your life to look like a vlog, you’re not shallow or fake. You’re human. For some, it’s journaling at sunrise.

For others, it’s binge-watching cosy vlogs during exam week. Whatever it is, it’s okay.