Love Your Flawz

This 5-minute video is absolutely worth a peek at for its creativity and powerful message about loving yourself exactly as you are, flaws and all.

To be honest, I’d never heard about her until I came across this video online today, but musician Caitlin Crosby created “Embrace Your Flawz” to highlight men and women (including Crosby) showing off their natural beauty.

Body Image Role Models of Olympic Proportions

Per the L.A. Times, with 31 World Cup victories under her belt, Vonn is already the greatest female skier in U.S. history. She's being marketed as the "Michael Phelps" of the Winter Games.

Given the non-stop pre-Olympics coverage, you’d have to be pretty much living under a rock not to know that the 2010 Olympics kick off on Friday, February 12 in Vancouver.

But have you seen Fitsugar’s  great spread on the American women of the 2010 Olympics?

It’s definitely worth taking a look (although I should add that I noticed there is absolutely no diversity represented among the women featured … ).

The women of the 2010 Winter Games are not only amazing athletes wholly dedicated 24/7 to their sport (which is enviable in and of itself) …  but also (in my humble opinion ) I think these women are awesome body image role models for young women today.

Diesel “Be Stupid” Campaign Screams; C’mon Girls Show Us Your !#%@$!

Now that I am done hyperventilating over this situation, I think I am in a half way reasonable state of mind to write this post about the Diesel Be Stupid ad campaign, sent to me by the mother of a 14-year-old daughter who was subject to this ad from Nylon Magazine.

And we wonder why kids are SEXTING?

The pathetic part about this is the “Be Stupid” concept is a good one, a series of well thought out taglines meant to encourage teens and twenty somethings to take chances, make mistakes, and not be afraid of failure. But why, for the love of God, did they have to attach this inspirational campaign to a picture of a chick flashing her boobs to a security cam? Do they have no daughters, nieces, or young girls in their life? Would Diesel Execs be proud to show their kids this ad?

Hold on — I’m just getting warmed up.

I meandered over to their homepage, to find this lovely banner flashing in my face. I blinked a few times and it was still there.

You read it right, the brand message here is:

SUCKS THE BALLS, HAS ANAL. REGRET-FREE HANGOVER.

Friday is National Wear Red Day!

You might recall a few weeks ago I did a post about American Heart Month.

Have you become a fan of the American Heart Association on Facebook and/or are you following AHA on Twitter @American_Heart) yet? (Pretty please?!? )

Well, in case you don’t know, tomorrow is National Wear Red Day!

When are we going to start trusting girls?

From Reuters:

Almost nine in 10 American teenage girls say they feel pressured by the fashion and media industries to be skinny and that an unrealistic, unattainable image of beauty has been created, a poll showed on Monday.

The online survey of 1,000 girls aged between 13 and 17 for the Girl Scouts of the USA found that three quarters said they would be more likely to buy clothes that they see on real-size models than on women who are skinny.

Play, Then Eat

While away last week, I saw this article (“Play, Then Eat:  Shift May Bring Gains at School”) in the New York Times and e-mailed it to myself to write a blog post about it, in the event that none of our other bloggers covered it first.

We know that all around the country, due to budget constraints, schools are cutting out recess and physical education classes. And, no surprise, children are getting heavier. Unhealthier.

This scares me, because for many kids, gym class and/or recess are possibly the only physical activity they get all day. Naturally, I’m an advocate for both gym class and recess.

Haircuts and Self Esteem on Salon Saturday

There are only two things in this world that I’m really high-maintenance about.

One is, obviously, food (though I’m getting muuuuch better about it/more flexible/more adventurous/less high-maintenance) and the other — the more critical by far–is my hair.

And no, it’s not because I’m “vain like that.”

The truth is, as a naturally curly red-head, I’ve struggled with my God-given color and ringlets since early childhood.

Even the Thin Can Be Fat

When I read the story in the Wall Street Journal this week titled “The Scales Can Lie: Hidden Fat,” it took me back to my college days and a friend I remember wondering about.  As I was struggling with my own self-perceived fatness, I remember wondering how my friend could be so thin yet not look it, at least in the way thin is usually thought to look.  She seemed the perfect picture of “ideal”  until you noticed her muscle tone.  There wasn’t any.  I still would have preferred having her body to mine at that time, though, being as ensconced in a poor body image as I was.

And I waited . . .

When I found out I was pregnant, I made an appointment with the gyn/ob my sister has used for both of her pregnancies.  I liked my gynecologist, but she doesn’t have a reliable OB reputation and my sister loved her doctor, so I switched over.  My sister assured me that this doctor was very nice, very helpful, and always open to questions.

I couldn’t ask my sister some of my most pressing concerns, though, because I felt ashamed admitting what they were.  I was worried that he might talk to me about weight control and post-birth weight loss all throughout my pregnancy.  I was worried he might push a c-section because my weight made me “high risk.”  I thought he might have a hard time understanding how I could be open to an epidural but against an elective c-section.

But I made my appointment … and I waited.

Unattainable Beauty: The Decades Biggest Airbrushing Scandals

Unattainable Beauty: The Decades Biggest Airbrushing Scandals - Newsweek.com

Newsweek put together this gallery of the decades most egregious retouching scandals of the last decade.

I don’t think we can talk about or show these ridiculously deformed photos enough.