I am flawed ( I know, weird right?!) and I can love myself through it. It isn't always easy, and I have a lot of moments that I hate myself. But overall in life, I love myself.
And I know that I am lucky. It breaks my heart to see people, particularly women who just don't feel the way I feel. A long, long time ago...like almost a decade, I realized that I wanted to be able to help these people feel great about themselves. Maybe not even great, maybe just okay.
Working in retail has really showed me how negative people feel about their bodies. It's crazy.
I want this to go farther than just the physical side. I want people to love their souls. That is THE hottest thing ever. If you would like to increase your sex appeal, you don't need to go on a diet, dye your hair, and buy new heels...you just need to believe in yourself. Seriously. Being sexy isn't about how many items of clothing you are willing to take off...it is about how many you can still have on whilst having people fawn over you. Everyone knows that girl. The one who is pretty...but nothing special, but everyone loves her! Let me tell you why..it is because she loves herself. It's a hot trend, you should try it.
I have a true dream of spending my life working as a non-profit organization that teaches women to love themselves and helps them find their way. And I hate anything that brings us down. There are numerous things I could mention but for now, I will stick with number one on my hate list pageants. I read an article with the new Miss Delaware, Kayla Martell. I think she is great, she has aleopecia which I suffered with a tiny bit as a kid, and as a result she is bald. She is more beautiful bald, than I am with all of my hair. Anyway the article talked about how she competed for 5 years to win the title and the first three she was bald and did not win. Last year she wore a wig and got runner up, this year, she wore her wig again and won. That sends out baaaad signals to me. It seems like she only won when she conformed. In the article when she was asked if she felt that she only won because she had the wig, her answer was something to the effect of (and yes, I am paraphrasing) "Sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do if you want to succeed"
!!!!!!!!
What!?!!!!? I would (not so) secretly like to be an actress in one of my many lives. Does that mean that I should pose naked to get attention so that I can jumpstart my career?!
I also dislike pageants because...they're ridiculous. You've got dozens of girls who are doing an awkward corny dance, smiling way too hard, wearing beautiful dresses, parading around in bikinis, giving generic, nice answers to questions, and performing a talent of some kind.
All for scholarship. Because we all need to tone up and lose 5-7 lbs if we want a $500 scholarship.
This was much longer than I intended, but I was on a roll.
So what do you think. Am I wrong? let me know, seriously.
xoxo,
N
What boosts your confidence? Or, what brings you down.
Funny you should write about this, I re-watched Little Miss Sunshine for the first time in awhile last night, which of course takes what you're talking about and throws really young kids in the mix. It's not bad enough that they're demeaning these girls and bamboozling them out of their souls but they're even doing it at an age where the poor kids couldn't know anything bad was going on.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah. Pageants = bad. Kids' pageants = Satan attempting to manifest himself on earth.
I totally agree, 100%. If you don't love yourself for who you are, then who will? If you're not willing to put in the effort for *you*, then I don't see how you could expect anyone else to.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about pageants, mostly because they turn out to be hypocritical. Teaching women how to be confident in themselves? Hm, no.
You boys are great. And Little Miss Sunshine is the best.
ReplyDeleteHey, just thought I'd offer a different perspective on pageants. I felt pretty much the same way that you do before I got involved with the Miss America Organization and I understand how easy it is to see pageants this way because of how they are presented to the general public. What most people don't see is what goes on behind the scenes. The one part of the competition that doesn't get aired on television, or shown before an audience is the interview that the contestant has with a panel of judges. Believe me, nice generic answers will get you nowhere in this interview. It is about finding out who you are and how you feel about about important social and political issues, and determining whether you are an intelligent, capable woman with great speaking skills. The women who do well in Miss America pageants are confident and comfortable with themselves (something you promote in this blog entry), healthy (not necessarily stick thin or in a flimsy bikini), and talented. They also raise funds for charities, create non-profit organizations, volunteer, etc. Personally, I have matured and grown as a woman because of the Miss Delaware Organization. I have also gained a family of amazing women in meeting and getting to know the other contestants.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I know this is getting ridiculously long but I do need to say something in Kayla's defense. She actually was in the top five one of the years that she competed without a wig, and then last year when she did wear a wig, she did not even make top five. Did wearing the wig help her win this year? Maybe. Obviously, I can't speak for Kayla, but I think that the benefit of winning with the wig on is that now she has the ability to reach so many more people with her wig off. If you have seen any of the news shows she has been on, you'll know that she takes her wig off in almost every show. She is not conforming, by any means. I also have to say that comparing an actress posing for nude photos to Kayla wearing a wig is a pretty harsh comparison.
ReplyDeleteAnyway sorry I wrote a novel instead of a normal comment but here is a different view on the Miss America pageant at least.
Yeah, there certainly are the ladies who legit enjoy participating in them and aren't all screwed up. Heck, I mentioned Little Miss Sunshine and Abigail Breslin's character was totally into them AND into just being herself. And I'm pretty sure not ALL pageants are inherently evil. I sure do generalize a lot for someone who, generally, doesn't like generalizing.
ReplyDeleteAlso. "Loving yourself is hot." Lol.
I don't know anything about what "pageant girls" are really like in general. But obviously some of the fake smiling, spray tans, implants, etc is a little fake, but honestly who isn't a little fake everyday. If I were completely real at work every day I probably would have killed about 200 asians by now. But instead I smile and try my best to understand them and their ridiculous demands everyday. Everybody is probably a little fake in most of the stuff they do, and honestly I think that's ok. As long as you know who you are and can be a real person in front of the people who are close to you, then you don't need to be "real" in front of clients, customers, or pageant judges.
ReplyDeletei found this article amusing. a girl gets her crown taken for dying her hair. http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/teen-pageant-winner-decrowned-after-dyeing-hair-brown-2293661/
ReplyDelete