Just The Way We Are
by Lasara Firefox Allen Every year on and around my birthday, I take inventory. Whether I want to or not, this happens. So I’ve learned to roll with it. And this year, here’s what inventory has yielded: Limit and defeat are not synonyms. As a writer, maybe you’d think I would have figured that one […]
This week–like many weeks lately–has been all about navigating a busy hectic world. And often I’m not sure what’s saving me from going insane anymore. Like what? You don’t have to ask or care. I’m sure your week had its craziness too so I won’t bore you with the mundane details of teaching 8 am […]
by Jennifer Collins When I was a little girl, my mother always told me that I was unique. That in all of creation there had never been anyone just like me. That my life had a purpose. That I could do anything that I set my mind to. That I was beautiful […]
I recently had the chance to hang out with Holly Fulger and friends (and fellow Speaking of Beauty contributing writers) in Holly’s home in L.A. Don’t freak out if you happen to be aware of The Cali Curse and the Me Being Banned from Ever Stepping Foot NEAR Cthe State of California thing. At least, […]
Go ahead. Stop what you are doing right now and look in the nearest reflective surface. Ignore the mean girl in your head and the things she always says because the mean girl is a bitch and it’s time to tell her to shut up, already. Instead, focus on the positive. One positive. And then […]
I woke up at 6:30 and was still rushing to get out of the front door by 8:30. We had a 15 minute drive ahead of us to make the bus for the pumpkin patch, our lunches were packed, and Buttercup was sitting pretty on the couch watching TV while I rushed […]
Reading about the latest body image flap created by Seventeen magazine makes me thank God I don’t have a girl. Really, what I’m thanking Him for is that I don’t have a 53% chance of dealing with a daughter’s body issues starting at age 13. Seventeen had a body mass index (or BMI) calculator on […]
It was when I took my not-yet-five-year-old daughter to see the forensic doctor who would photograph her body and complete what is commonly referred to as a “rape kit” that I began to wonder if she truly believed us when we told her she was beautiful. Yes, I’m the mom of a child who […]
I have a big nose. I’ve been embarrassed by my face since I was a child. Painfully shy, I always used humor to distract from my features. I’ve been told to get a nose job by friends trying to help and enemies trying to hurt. People often say I’m exotic-looking, but I think they mean […]
Love it or hate it, Elan Morgan ponders self-acceptance, our bodies, and why there isn’t really an answer. I think about beauty and self-acceptance and love, and I think about how our culture, in an effort to beat back the ocean of self-loathing that women have been drowning in for so long, offers up […]
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