DATE ME...if you want to be FAMOUS.

Let me preface this post by saying this is not a Taylor Swift style bashing of the exes; it is merely a post that will make any other girl high five themselves that they don't have to date in LA.

People say you can not fall inlove in LA, I say, quite the contrary! You can fall inlove with just about anyone for about 30 seconds. What the challenge in a city of Actors, Models, Entrepreneurs, Rockstars, Porn Stars, Managers, is you really never know what you're actually signing up for... especially when you start dating someone.

I am a hopeless romantic. I have grown up watching my parents be absolutely inseperable. I distinctly remember sitting with my dad to gloat over how stunning my mother was for every gala, Angel/Heart ball or black tie event they attended in the late 80's/early 90's. My dad would say, "Here comes my trophy wife!" To this day, 30 plus years later, my dad will still go for a butt pinch in public, talk about how sexy and amazing my mom is and he can still make her giggle like a teenager. My parents were placed on this earth as versions of the same person and my life long challenge has been to mirror the type of relationship they have.

Here's the first problem. I am an only child, a daddy's girl and shamelessly outgoing. So when you grow up being the loudest laugh, the president of every club, the lead roles in the musicals and having a very charmed up bringing, not only is it difficult to find those similiarities in another person... it's made for quite the stories. As my friend Rocky always says "Well, at least you've never dated anyone boring." Ain't that the truth.

My first taste of the LA dating scene was with a guy who wasn't even living in LA at the time. I had really celebrated myself  for "how cool" I played it with this guy. We were long distance (which is a constant running joke with my guyfriends since every relationship post college I've had has begun with a guy in another state); him living in Southern California and me at the time living in Arizona. It was a newer relationship, I thought he was cute "but not too cute" like my past boyfriends. He was charming, funny, quirky, had great taste in music, also! we have mutual friends and he lived in a state I was being promoted to in a matter of months.  The Holy Grail? I thought so.

A couple weeks into my move to LA, I'm texting with him about when we would see each other now only being 2-3 hours apart. We threw around a couple weekends (which of course I'm acting super passive about because I actually WANT to see him so of course, I have to appear disinterested.) Come valentines day, about a month into my move I get a text from him that he's going to be in LA the following weekend. In my head I'm celebrating with sweet dance moves and firework explosions... my text response is "Oh, sweet. Maybe we'll grab a drink one night." And then it began.

He texted me to let me know he was picked for a popular dating reality tv show and that the filming started the weekend he was here. I clearly wished him the best of luck and then went for a run that could have qualified me for world record timing had I been keeping track. So, twice a week for a couple months I was able to watch this guy date another woman, profess his love for her and eventually propose to her to be REJECTED. My first thought was... KARMA! AND THEN? he was on the next season as the token male.

I found this out from my best friend in Arizona while on a hike with my most recent television personality ex-boyfriend. So, thankfully, I did not have to painfully sit through the second season because I was *sigh* inlove and without a care in the world running the beach with who I thought was my future husband.

Fast forward, 8 months into our relationship, my new guy landed a spot on a soap opera. What I have come to learn about guys in the industry, especially ones who are attractive is that they tend to become puppets to their managers; brutally self absorbed and every story starts with who they're "now friends with" or how many followers they have on twitter.

In a matter of 4 months, I watched my (now ex) boyfriend lock lips, undress and marry a girl on television who was barely 21, abandon his friends and business partners who were not in the industry and I was told by his "management team" that I was no longer allowed to be associated with him. Basically, I can sum it up in a few quotes: "Stephanie, he needs to appear available to his fans;" "I don't think you're strong enough to date a celebrity;" and my favorite one "If you really love him, you'll disappear."

Now this "celebrity" is co-leasing an AUDI R8, has been killed off the show and is an online host for a web channel I didn't even know existed. Moral of the story is, you can't judge a book (or a man) by its cover here in LA. They're FULL of surprises. Surprises come in forms of a lack of character, surprise religions, children in other countries and debilitating gambling addictions... let's just say, you're girl knows how to pick 'em. 

So, the question is, what is the armor against these LA guys?! No final roses or magic potions here, my friend. But I will say being surrounded by selfish playboys with hidden agendas makes it really easy to focus on career and have the most AMAZING group of girlfriends. My girls are the best support system I've ever had outside of my immediate family.

So, LA ladies, put away the pitchforks, just keep your priorities in check, because lord knows in this city for the ambitious male? You aren't even close to being one.

So hold out, put on your dancing shoes, love on your girls, because if you love yourself and support your girlfriends, it doesn't matter at the end of the day if you have a guy on speed dial.

XO- Steph.