Amber Leigh Doyle, Writer and Fashion Editor Posted on April 9, 2023 by planirl

Amber Leigh Doyle is a recent graduate with a high 2:1 BA Honours Degree in English, Media and Cultural Studies. She successfully researched and completed a 12,000 word thesis for her final year on the career of fashion and celebrity culture photographer David LaChapelle. During her final year project she researched gender, pop culture, sexuality, consumerism, identity, commodity fetishism and the cult of celebrity.

She is currently interning in Image Publications, which is located in Dun Laoghaire, as a Digital Content Journalist and  previously finished a three month internship as an Internal Marketing Executive and Personal Assistant in Those Two Girls PR and Marketing.

Since leaving college in May, she has been involved as a weekly reporter for four online publications: HelpMyStyle.ie  Ramp.ie, Collegetimes.ie and MusicReviewUnsigned.com

She was promoted to Fashion Editor of the Style section in Collegetimes.ie after writing for them as a weekly reporter for two months. Collegetimes.ie is an hourly updated, fully interactive, dynamic platform with over 120 student contributors from all around Ireland. The website launched at the end of August 2012 and has gained immense popularity since then. Collegetimes.ie receives approximately 45-50,000 unique visits per week. Style Wednesdays are one of the most popular days for the website and, since coming on board as Fashion editor, the views have tripled for Style Wednesday.

She recently set up a personal website amberleighdoyle.com which acts as her online portfolio and holds the majority of her articles from the past few months, and a section which she will be updating daily with short articles on everything from beauty and fashion to relationships and the workplace.

•  Because I am a Girl I ask … For complete gender equality worldwide. Nothing more and nothing less. Women in the developing world are often told that the famous myth that ‘they can have it all’. However, there are still common prevailing stereotypes and assumptions made about women according to their gender. The discrimination against women has not stopped, in fact it seems to be swept under the rug. I am delighted to see women rising in the ranks of the workplace, and recognize how far we have come. Indeed, stereotypical views concerning gender are still present, but they are not as dominant and suffocating as they once were. The dream is for women to be viewed as equal to men in all walks of life.

• Because I am a Girl I believe … Women should stick together and not step on one another in order to climb the ladder. We should recognize how far we have come in recent years and recognize that this is not the same for women worldwide. There are still young girls being sold into the sex trade, dominated by abusive spouses, sold for money, discriminated against, brutally raped and mutilated, sexually molested and not allowed control of their own bodies. ‘Because I am a Girl’ is a wonderful campaign that speaks for women in under developed countries and fights for them to have an education. It is so important for women to be equally educated and allowed the same opportunities as men. I am a firm believer in equality and I hope that someday gender-bias will become extinct. Every child, whether man or woman, should respect the enduring love, care and compassion of their mother and respect her for carrying them and giving them life. People should not be discriminated against because of their differences.

• Because I am a Girl I hope … That misogynistic, patriarchal institutions, such as The Catholic Church, are abolished; they reproduce ‘common sense’ mythologies about the status of women as inferior and act as a form of repression. Without religion, this world would be a more peaceful and a less biased place to live. Suppressive institutions are bound up in cultural identity and, for equality to happen, these conventional traditions and ideologies need to be removed.

• Because I am a Girl I wonder … Will women ever have full control of their body and identity in a world that is mainly male-dominated. In Ireland, for instance, the notion of abortion is contested and prohibited. I feel that women should have the right to choice, plain and simple. The Catholic Church have enforced a feeling of sin and shame on the female body throughout the Bible, eg. the story of The Garden of Eden. According to The Catholic Church, it is the female that brought sin into the world and doomed mankind. With prevailing mythologies such as this, the female identity is not allowed to be a blank slate. Ideologies, traditions, values, national identity and stereotypical views are enforced on the female since birth. Children are born gender less but are shaped into the ideal throughout their lives. For example girls wear pink and play with dolls. I also wonder will women ever be sexually liberated to the point of their male counterparts?

• Because I am a Girl I dream … Of working hard to get to the top of the career ladder. I am so lucky to have achieved a top notch Third Level education. It was a struggle finiancially, I had no support and had to take out large loans each year, but I am so grateful to have been educated so thoroughly. Education should not be a luxury: it  should be a necessity- regardless of one’s social class, race or gender.

• Because I am a Girl I remember … How strong my female family members are. Growing up in a female-dominated family and seeing their struggles has made me determined to succeed. I am so proud of all my family and their achievements, especially my mother and my grandmother. Throughout my degree I studied subjects such as Feminism, Cultural Identity, Gender Politics, Nationalism, Literature and many more which opened my eyes to ongoing issues of inequality that I had taken for granted and normalized into my everyday life prior to my course. I have a huge interest in Womens’ Studies and perhaps some day I will return to education for a Masters in this module.

•  Because I am a Girl I like … Being a girl. I am an out-and-out‘typical’ girl who loves fashion, makeup, girly dates, dancing, singing, shopping, creative writing, poetry, romantic movies and Ryan Gosling. I love speaking to new people, reading magazines, writing articles, hearing inspirational stories and researching interesting topics. I like my independence and my freedom. I love being able to express myself, work hard and make plans for my career.

• Because I am a Girl I dislike … Institutions. I dislike the Catholic Church since it is completely misogynistic and brain-washing. I have grown up questioning everything, from patriarchy to religion, and I am happy to have such an opinionated, inquisitive mind. I dislike being spoken down to and patronised. I dislike homophoia, racist remarks, sexist remarks and small-mindedness. I dislike the expectations that come with being a woman. Sometimes I feel, in terms of stereotypical views of womanhood, I am an anti-woman: I can’t cook, I’m not maternal and I am extremely career driven.

• Because I am a Girl I feel … Like the whole post-feminist notion of ‘we have it all’ needs to be put on a pedestal and questioned. Supposedly women can have a high-flying career, marriage, children, hot dinners on the table, a clean house and maintain their appearance all at once. The question I pose is, can we have it all. And if so, how?

• Because I am a Girl I celebrate… my independence and education. I celebrate the women who have worked hard to change the lives of others worldwide and I am thankful to have such strong female characters in my life.