Ashlee Marie Preston on Being Impactful Rather than Being Right | Royal T

So often, there’s pressure to form opinions and share perspectives that fit into our prescribed cultural boxes.

Instead of steering with organic curiosity, drawing up beliefs authentically, and safely discussing our findings, we engage in content we already endorse and deliberate with likeminded friends and colleagues. That’s the problem with echo chambers, on social media and in real life: we consume and share information that reinforces what we already perceive as the truth.

At surface level, isn’t that what we crave? To be told we’re right? Whether you’re a lowkey person with a few hundred followers or a celebrity with a couple million, we all share this need to be validated, to be seen, to be told, ‘right on!’

But if that need for community approval overshadows your authentic voice, the truth is forfeited.

Public figure Ashlee Marie Preston rose to the spotlight in early years of her advocacy work and speaks about social impact on LATV’s RoyalT.

“The need to be right is rooted in ego, but the desire to be impactful is centered on service,” Preston says.

Initially, she used her public voice to free herself and help others to feel free, too. Then, as her popularity grew, she was swayed by waves of fanbase adoration.

“[I was] just saying things that people want to hear, [I was] becoming a caricature,” she goes on to say. “This isn’t about truth and authenticity. It’s about: how can I brand myself? How can I say the thing that’s gonna get the claps, and get the clicks?”

At a certain point, Preston realized her misstep and shifted her intentions, community-first.

How can we build a more compassionate society if we do not speak from an honest place? How can we we extinguish racism and sexism and homophobia if we do not bring real experiences to light? We can’t be afraid to ask questions, intentional ones that deepen our understanding.We shouldn’t be afraid of being wrong.

Cancel culture—despite its necessity to some degree—shames people for being wrong, scorns re-education, and limits media space for changed minds. It’s a sentence of public ex-communication with little mercy or cultural rehabilitation.

Huffington Post writer Candice Frederick reflects on the unsustainability of this new-age public custom.

“No one can offer an opinion or ask a question ― however valid ― about cancel culture without risking being just as quickly canceled. That’s what makes it such an erratic thing,” she writes. “These questions and opinions often get sucked up into the vortex of social media, only to be misconstrued and mangled by a flurry of keyboard warriors. But the lack of answers persists.”

More likely than not, the ‘cancelled person’ represents a faction of society who thinks the same way. So, there’s a chance to make a sizeable impact if we lean in instead of writing off. Exchanging in honest dialogue safely opens the possibility for understanding and growth.

Besides, people change their minds all the time. Just because you believed something ten years ago doesn’t mean you still do. Maybe your stance on immigration changed when you fell in love with an undocumented person. Maybe you worked through your own homophobic stereotypes after your son came out. Maybe you finally ate olives the right way and now you can’t get enough kalamata.

If you are actively curious, always learning, then your mind should be changing! The tempo of our life’s orbit encounters new ideas every day; we only need to welcome different cultural beats that (at times) change the pace.

“The same way you get up, you brush your teeth, then you take a shower, do your thing every morning,” Ashlee Marie Preston says, “there is also a specific ‘soul hygiene’ around intentionality and we always have to check on that.”

Our media literacy will get stronger when we seek out content that contradicts our explore pages. Our perspectives will become more nuanced when we engage in difficult conversations intent on impact. And our voice will only grow more insightful and powerful when we lead authentically, compassionately, and without fear.

What is the “truth” if not ongoing human discovery?

Watch Ashlee’s full exclusive interview on LATV+.

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