America’s Next Top Model?  No, it’s Jane Doe.  How many times, when growing up, did your mother say things like, “Are you going to wear that?  Don’t you want to do your hair?  Make-up just adds so much….”   She probably didn’t even realize the messages that were ingrained in her from her upbringing (and the media) that she was handing down; the idea that a woman could not possibly be attractive without dressing her body, styling her hair and painting her face in a “certain fashion”.  And, apparently, that fashion can change at the whim of the next “it” thing.

So what’s a girl to do that’s more concerned with Coco Puffs than Coco Chanel?  Young girls are being entered into pageants before they can even spell them and when they grow up they are idealizing anorexic, vapid models. Where is the parent to tell them they are perfect as they are and to love themselves regardless? Are they too caught up in living their unfulfilled dreams vicariously through their children to notice it’s not their child’s dream?  Just be you and express your own vision, at least you’ll be happy and at peace-that always spills over to the world around you.  Maybe you’ll even create a new “it” trend of fashion and style based in reality!