What I love about myself: My passion to help young women and teens
My biggest challenge in accepting my body and beauty: Not do the “bits and parts” game, where I critique certain parts of my body. I work to love my body in its totality, what it does for me and how it serves me. Not how it looks “here and there.”
My biggest support in learning to appreciate myself: My religion and meditation
Beauty is: Felt, not seen. Beauty is how we feel about ourselves and how we make others feel. Beauty is how we live our lives, not how we look doing it.
Why I am strong: In my darkest hours, there is always a woman (friend, family, artist, author) to lift me up and keep me going. In my brightest moments, I find myself surrounded by women (my daughter, students, friends, or family). Why I am beautiful: I believe that I must give back to this world, working to make a difference. I feel beautiful when I am helping others.
What women must know:
1. Don’t follow the rules if you didn’t make them.
2. You define beauty and power for yourself.
3. Media messages are designed to dismantle your power – avoid them or fight back!
4. Surround yourself with other strong women.
5. Work with girls, teens or young women. Your wound will heal by helping others.
6. It is better to go down fighting in rags, than go numb in a silk dress.
7. As women in America in 2007, we are blessed. We stand on the shoulders of all the women before us who fought for our rights. We owe them the honor of continuing the fight.
