Why everyone online wants to live like Dua Lipa

I want to be Dua Lipa so bad

She might be the only celebrity who can post from a yacht, a museum, a restaurant, a book

club, and a music festival and infuriate me not because she's doing it all, but because she's doing it all exactly the way I want her to be

It's the difference between walking into a rich person's house and seeing a framed NFT monkey or seeing Lauren Greenfield photography or a David Hockney painting

Either way, they have way more money than me, but the latter is somehow more justified

in it. Dua Lipa has become a very specific kind of modern pop star

Yes, she's famous and rich and constantly on holiday. Yes, she is the most beautiful woman on the planet

Yes, she is smart and has incredible taste. But her version of celebrity leisure doesn't read as empty the way a lot of celebrity leisure does

And a lot of people agree with me. There's people online who say Dua Lipa is always on vacation, which is totally wrong because I'm British

So we call it a holiday. My first instinct is that this must be

because she maintains her moral code, right? She's staunchly pro-Palestine and has criticized policies

like the UK's withdrawal from the EU and its immigration language But other celebrities maintain their moral code too So I thought maybe this is just because she has a great management team But Radical 22 hasn had this long storied history of allowing celebrities to become brands in a way that excites audiences

She actually started that company with her dad. Her PR team, Daubell, does seem quite good and it

represents beloved artists like Elton John and Paul McCartney, Harry Styles, Shania Twain, BTS

and Rihanna, but even they can't spin straw into gold. They represent James Corden. So why does her

celebrity leisure read as tasteful and curious and cultured and like almost responsible when others

read barren and desolate? And why are we so obsessed with her? Let's first take a look at

her social media. Her Instagram is basically a mood board for a dream version of adulthood

Travel, food, dancing, friends, books, museums, a really hot husband. She doesn't really seem to

be selling luxury despite her insane shoe closet, but she does seem to be selling the

idea that pleasure is a perfectly fine end goal. Enter the one and only Service 95. Plenty

of celebrities have tried it but no one can really nail a book club like Dua Service 95 is Dua free culture newsletter which she has described as a kind of cultural concierge It covers travel activism food culture and books And there also a book club

where she interviews authors and spotlights novels like Shugal Bain, Swimming in the Dark

and The Trees. Now, to me, this is a really important part of why her image works. She makes

luxury look like things you and I can do too. Anyone can get involved in activism. Anyone with

a library card can join her book club. There are these small things that make us feel closer

her and that make her lifestyle of excess seem attainable. Because a lot of celebrities have

lifestyle brands. They sell skincare, tequila, shapewear, supplements, candles, whatever. But Dua has somehow convinced us that despite selling a skincare line and partnering with

brands like Bulgarian Versace, she isn't selling us a product at all. No, she's selling us an

aspirational life. She's a pop star selling herself and we, myself included, are hungry to buy

It's easy to ignore the constant hum of marketing when she seems so genuinely interested in

the world. At least for now, that's doing her favors online. Because right now the internet is obsessed with a certain fantasy of living beautifully

without turning every single part of your life into work Think Euro summer mood boards and Anthony Bourdain nostalgia and eight girl reading culture and travel TikTok and the creator economy fantasy that your life can

be both your job and your art. Madison Husinga called this the Dua effect, a brand built around

abundance and being a student of life. And she's building it at the right time because for a lot of

young people, the fantasy is to just have enough time, money, and emotional space to pursue curiosity

to read and travel and go to dinner and learn a language and make art and be social. Ultimately

to have a life that doesn't feel completely consumed by productivity and devoid of pleasure

Gen Z is less likely to be interested in hustle culture or the grind than previous generations

because they've been shown that it doesn't actually work. It's a scam. And that's why

Dua's Leisure feels so different from like an influencer posting a sponsored hotel stay or a

billionaire giving a tour of their closet. Her life is extremely excessive, but it's framed as

enrichment. Of course, there's also a tension there. Dua's life is not replicable for most people. Most

of us cannot casually build an international existence out of beaches, books, parties

and perfectly lit dinners. And the obsession with her probably won't last. It never does