Is the Grass Always Greener?

Have you seen The Devil Wears Prada 2?

If not, consider this your sign to:(1) go see it and (2) stop reading now if you want to avoid spoilers.

Here’s the quick recap of The Devil Wears Prada 1 and 2.

At the end of the original film, Andy Sachs witnesses Miranda Priestly manipulate her colleague, Nigel, to protect her own position. Faced with the reality of the industry she once admired, Andy makes the difficult decision to walk away from the glitz and glamour of Runway magazine and high fashion to protect her personal values, integrity, and independence.

Fast forward nearly two decades to The Devil Wears Prada 2, and Andy is reintroduced as a successful, award-winning New York City journalist. However, in the opening scene, she is abruptly laid off just moments before accepting an award, and a clip of her outraged reaction quickly goes viral. At the same time, Runway magazine is facing a major PR scandal. When the magazine’s chairman sees the viral clip, it unexpectedly creates an opportunity for Andy to once again work arm-in-arm with Miranda.

And the rest is cinematic magic!

The movie made me think about the advice I heard when I decided to move and make a career change about two years ago. As soon as I started sharing that I was thinking about making a change, I was met with multiple versions of: “Beware… the grass isn’t always greener.”

Of course, what people really meant was that when you step into the unknown, it may not actually be better than the situation you’re already comfortable in. It could even be worse. Fair enough.

So was the grass greener for Andy after she decided to leave Runway magazine the first time around? I wish I could ask her character directly, but since I can’t, I’ll take an educated guess based on what we know.

After leaving Runway, Andy spends the next twenty years traveling the world as a journalist. The movie doesn’t go super deep into her career, but during a date scene, she mentions that she spent her time away from fashion working on long-form investigative-style features. She seems to have close, comfortable relationships with her colleagues from the newsroom, but at the same time, most of her work also appears to be done alone.

She’s single, living in a New York City apartment with brown running water, and has her eggs frozen and stored somewhere in the city. In one scene, she’s sipping wine with one of her closest friends, who appears to have the kind of life many people associate with “having it all”: a luxury apartment, a child, and perhaps more stability.

Andy’s life after Runway doesn’t necessarily scream “happily ever after,” but it also doesn’t feel like failure. It's just different.

So, was the grass greener when Andy returned to Runway as the Features Editor?

Well… her salary boost afforded her a luxury apartment owned by a handsome realtor who, conveniently, turned out to be her new boyfriend. Her new role had her borrowing designer dresses from the Runway fashion closet for lunches in the Hamptons, jetting off to Milan Fashion Week, and mentoring her very first intern.

From the outside looking in, it certainly appeared glamorous and greener. Right?

Well... maybe not? At the same time, she was also reintroduced to fake friendships, scandal, exhaustion, and internal conflict. The success came at a cost.

So, that leads me back to my original question: Is the grass always greener?

No.

What about the warning that “the grass isn’t always greener”? Is that true?

Maybe.

But I think what The Devil Wears Prada 2 really teaches us is this: the grass is just grass.

When we decide to make a life change, we are not necessarily trading a bad life for a better one or vice versa. We are simply trading one patch of grass for another. One set of circumstances for a different set of circumstances.

Every decision comes with trade-offs between the comfort we leave behind and the unknown we step into. We usually can’t know in advance whether the next chapter will be “greener.” All we can know for certain is that it will be different.

Maybe our job isn’t to obsess over whether the grass is greener, but how to find meaning in what’s different and to learn from it.

So, what did Andy ultimately learn?

In a ScreenRant article, Anne Hathaway shared that Andy’s arc in The Devil Wears Prada 2 is realizing that she wants to be part of a team. Hathaway explained:

"At the end of the first film, Andy throws the phone in the fountain and goes her own way. This one, she learns she wants to be on a team. I just think it shows the three of them are stronger together, and that there's obviously the head of the empire, but there are no stars when as it comes to doing the work."

So, if you’re in the middle of making a life change and people keep warning you that “the grass isn’t always greener,” maybe this is your reminder that it doesn’t have to be. It just has to be different enough to help you grow, learn, or become more of who you’re meant to be.

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Find one thing that brings you joy today.