If you google ‘What is a guilty pleasure?’ the first definition that comes up is this:
Guilty Pleasure: (noun) Something, such as a film, television programme, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.
The name itself suggests that it’s something that you enjoy that makes you feel guilty. I tried for hours to come up with any guilty pleasures that I actually had, and I’m not going to lie, it was incredibly difficult.
I think for me the issue was that feeling of guilt for enjoying something. I don’t feel guilty for enjoying anything, I don’t think I should. I don’t think that anyone should be made to feel ashamed for liking the things that they like.
That’s not always been the case for me, when I was younger I had a lot of guilty pleasures. Like the fact I read fan fiction, that I loved Glee, that my favourite movies were A Cinderella Story and Step Up, that I loved Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.
Somewhere along the line something shifted, and I decided that I shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for doing those things that I enjoy. After all, a key piece of advice someone once gave me was that you can never be truly happy unless you are happy with yourself. You can’t be happy with yourself if you’re ashamed of those things that make you happy.
So these days, if anyone asks me if I have any guilty pleasures the answer is no. No, I don’t have any guilty pleasures. Because I refuse to be made to feel ashamed of those things that make me happy.
A Place of Mine 