What do you think of when you think of Jameela Jamil? (I realise that I may be talking to the wrong demographic here, but bear with me, and I promise I’ll broaden it out.) I think of hair – lots and lots of shiny, black, beautiful hair. Personally – and I thought this long before telogen effluvium, caused by the trauma of spinal surgery, made half of mine fall out and turn the rest grey – I don’t believe I’ve ever seen hair as lovely, not even on the great stars of Hollywood like Veronica Lake. If ever anyone had ‘pretty privilege’ (a term which I find censorious and covetous; attractive people should get prizes, just like brainy ones do) it’s Jamil.  

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But, rather than glory in it, she’s forever looking for a reason to make herself be seen as a geek, an oddity, an outcast. Often she has done this by publicising her health problems (oops – I do this now!) including being partially deaf, having a shellfish and peanut allergy, being a coeliac, a ‘recovered’ anorexic, having ‘the invisible disease’ Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (also shared by the ghastly Lena Dunham, who I wish really was invisible), getting mercury poisoning from leaky fillings and damaging her spine........

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