Weight Loss Journal: Let Me Tell You What Real Beauty Is

I can't possibly be the only woman tired of seeing these stick-thin, anorexic or bulimic, teenage girls walk around flipping their bleached-blonde hair DEFINING fashion and what it is to be a woman. How can you call a girl who has barely reached puberty a woman? I don't look like that and I never will or want to. Don't tell me that every fashion designer has to pull some high-school girl out of class to walk a catwalk in Paris because I'll promptly tell you that I don't believe it. There are better looking examples of the female species out there who have actually had the opportunity to work a day in their lives without having to ask their parents to sign a consent form or help them apply for a work permit.

Although they are not the best role models for little girls, let's use the Real Housewives as an example: Let me tell you what the Housewives of Atlanta have that none of the other Housewives ever will...back fat!! They are healthy, beautiful women who seem to get much less airtime than their puny counterparts and frankly I'd rather see NeNe squeeze into a girdle than see Bethany teeter around on her stilettos like a bobble head. Honestly, Bethany looked better when she was pudgy and pregnant than she did pre or postpartum. I'd rather watch or encourage others to watch and take notes on how much Sheree exercises or what she puts in her juicer than tell them to waste their time dreaming about how much weight they'll have to lose to comfortably fit into one of Taylor's tailored togas. 

We all need to spend more time supporting causes like Dove Campaign for Real Beauty which, "started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable" or Black Girls Rock which, among other things, encourages "dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media." These organizations seem to exist in a vacuum -- in our televisions -- where they are unaffected by the reality going on around them. In spite of their popularity, they seem to have done very little to change the media's portrayal of women or society's perception of what a woman should look like.

So, let me tell you what real beauty is: Beauty is what God gave you; it's that face you see in the morning before you pile on the makeup and the body you see in the mirror before you cover it with the latest fashions. I can't ever wait to get home to pull my hair back, wash my face and get back to the look that Shakespeare lauds in his sonnet when he says, "a woman's face with nature's own hand painted, hast thou". Nature is the only beauty regimen you need to be truly beautiful. Put natural things into and onto your body to keep it healthy; remember to eat right and exercise.

  

Keep it right, keep it tight, keep it real.