This is Beauty.
A long time ago when three people were reading Girl Body Pride (two of them being the friends writing for the site and the third being myself) I posted an invitation to the community we were working to build.
I asked women to send me pictures of themselves. No perfect hair teased and tucked into place perfectly. No makeup. No bullshit.
Just themselves and the faces that their children see and adore. The faces that their partners, spouses, and lovers fall asleep to, wake up to, and love with out without the added self-esteem boost a bit of mascara or lipstick might give us. The goal was (and still is) to feature these women on the site and in newsletters for the Girl Body Pride community to celebrate, relate to, and be inspired to see themselves as beautiful just the way they are now. That’s the point, right? No matter what we hope tomorrow may bring, if we can’t love today, tomorrow’s just going to be another reason to keep bitching.
You can lose ten pounds.
You can spend hundreds on makeup and beauty products.
You can get lipo, a boob job, a tummy tuck, permanent makeup, or live in your Spanx because oxygen isn’t that important, anyway.
You can get that job promotion you’ve busted your ass for. Buy the bigger house. Get the nicer car. Or say “I Do” and walk down the aisle in the dress of your dreams after going on some crazy pre-wedding diet because you didn’t have the sense to just buy the right fucking size dress because The Number matters more than your health, sanity, self-esteem, or body image issues.
You can wave a magic wand, click your red sparkly heels together three times, or wiggle your nose and instantly replace everything you hate about yourself with everything you keep wishing you were, had, and looked like.
It won’t work, by the way. The skipping of the Important Stuff like self-discovery, self-acceptance, learning what it feels like to be happy in your own skin and all of the Happy that comes with that little revelation. Because without the journey, the destination is pointless.
When I look at this picture of my friend Melissa Olivero I see the beauty her shy smile hopes to project. There’s doubt, of course. But there’s also inner strength and the desire to love herself today, high five-ing herself for making it through the day tthinking Good and Self-Affirming things.
I see truth.
Thank you, Melissa, for sharing yourself with the Girl Body Pride community.
Pauline Ca
mpos is freelance writer and editor of the new ebook anthology, Strong Like Butterfly, which features the writing talents of writers Lissa Rankin, Therese Walsh, Mercedes Yardley, and many more. She contributes to Funny Not Slutty, Owning Pink, and 30 Second Mom. She blogs three times a week at Aspiring Mama (or when she remember to take her Adderall) and is the founder of Girl Body Pride. Strong like Butterfly is currently available on Smashwords.
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