Keep It Real

In my first post, I declared myself a feminist. Today's post follows those lines. This week Miss Representation is hosting Keep It Real, a movement dedicated to real beauty. All of this originated from a beautiful, challenging, amazing young woman named Julia Bluhm, an 8th grader if you can believe (I was not this responsible as an 8th grader), who has a petition for Seventeen magazine to do this photo spread in each issue. If you're committed to helping change the world for current and future girls, or even just appreciate the idea, it would mean the world to me, Julia, and the entire movement if you would just put your name on the petition.  The goal is to get every major magazine to have one un-photoshopped spread of the models in each issue. I really believe that would show girls how amazing being yourself is and that looking like a model isn't even possible.

I believe in so much more than that, as do all feminists. Our secret: we tackle one issue at a time, banding together across the world.

I want my daughters to have a safe, happy life; these hypothetical daughters don't even exist yet, are years off, but they inspire more of every action I take than most people my age understand.

I want my sons to respect women in all shapes and sizes, and to be critical of the media's interpretations of women. These future boys have changed the way I interact with men.

I'm young, Godric knows it, and I am shy of the level of the experience most women expect from someone as dedicated as I am. But these are not setbacks or even misqualifications. I believe in changing the world, and sometimes, you just need belief. Belief is what really changes the world anyway.

So keep it real. Find beauty in life and search for it your whole life; don't accept anyone else's standards of beauty. Be yourself, because that is the most beautiful, stellar thing in the whole world you could be.


Today, my real beauty is an unapologetic size 6 in bold colors and patterns with second-day, untamable curls.