On my soapbox...

... but I promise it will be for only a moment or two...

I follow several blogs.  I found the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell when she was linked to somewhere else.  And I started to read her.  So wise for someone so young...  But recently I've been trying to cut back on the blogs I follow and I thought perhaps her blog might be one I drop.  I didn't drop it yet, though, and today, I'm SO glad I didn't. 

Saturday's blog post, in my humble opinion, is one of her best.  It's about a subject near and dear to my heart:  self-esteem in young women/people.  Please take a few minutes to listen to Jean Kilbourne speak about how the media helps ruin the self-esteem of young women, how it affects our perceptions of ourselves, our lives, our potential...

http://or-so-i-feel.blogspot.com/2012/04/women-in-advertising.html


I'm 51, and at 51, I'm beautiful.  Not drop dead gorgeous, no one is going to plaster me up on the side of a building in a bikini, but I am a beautiful woman. 

I am thin, but my husband loves me.  Me.  The me I AM, not the me I'd be if I lost 20 pounds. 

The kids in school, those little second-graders I read to every other week?  They love it when I come in, not because I'm pretty or wearing the latest and trendiest clothes, but because I'm there for them, to read to them, to pay attention to them, to listen to them, and that's a gift they don't all get from a lot of people.

I am smart, not as smart as I was when I was younger and really using the brain God gave me to think and learn, but I am a pretty smart person.

I do a good job at work, always have, always will, and I take pride in the fact that I will always be able to get a good recommendation because I always do my best.

Sure, I wish my hair was thicker and longer and fuller, but you do the best with what you've got.

I finally learned how to apply eyeliner on a YouTube video about 5 months ago.  Yes, at 50.  (And I must have been doing it SO wrong for so many years - the day I put it on the new way, several people commented that my makeup looked nice that day!)  Just an example that you can learn at any time.

I am violently opposed to the Twilight saga, not because I'm anti-vampire, or anti-young love, or any nonsense like that.  And I admit I've only read the first one and not seen any of the movies.  But any book that has the heroine feel that she's not pretty enough or smart enough or sparkly enough for the hero?  That book is NOT winding up on my shelf'o'favorites!  Those books are targeted to tweens, according to what I've heard, an age when the LAST thing they need to read about is LOW self-esteem.  They should be taught, in school, in books, in movies and TV shows, that they ARE worthy, they ARE beautiful, they ARE good enough, that there are people who love them AS THEY ARE, not as they might be if they were 10, 20 or 100 pounds thinner, if their hair was highlighted, if they wore thongs that show instead of granny panties that don't.

Thanks, Meg Fee from the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell, thanks for introducing me to that video clip of Ms. Kilbourne.  I'll be doing all I can to support this cause, any way I can.

Look at yourself after watching this...

Please take 4 minutes and 11 seconds from your busy holiday week and watch this video.  This man has touched my heart.  I will never forget him and I'm posting this video here so that I'll always be able to go back and hear him say, "Every single girl right here, right now, I want you to know that you are beautiful.  You are gorgeous just the way you are.  And you boys?  You da man!"

THIS is the lesson I hope all young women can learn, and it's a lesson I hope all young men can learn.

You/we are all beautiful.