Beauty Sketches {Tampa Boudoir Photographer}

A woman's greatest battle, is with herself.  

The ugly world of beauty. From when we are young, we are told we are beautiful.  We strive for it as we get older. Barbie, magazines, billboards, TV and movies all play into this subliminal message that we need to look like those perfect images and 'idols' we know no better than to worship. (I can promise you, i never wanted to be barbie....i wanted to be Theresa or whomever the pretty dark haired one was named.) I related to the darker haired dolls and movie characters and wanted to have curves like they did. Remember the book "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret."  She would do an exercise to improve her chest size.....it is the only thing i remember from the book, and that is because i too wanted that-and did that exercise. Curves, was in my mind, are what defined you as a woman. I was simply eating the spoon fed garbage that the media dealt out.  

Dove came out with a Real Beauty Campaign that moved me to the brink of tears. It made me realize how harshly we *I* judge  ourselves, and it makes me sad. We take any negative thing that has ever possibly been said to us, or that we have looked in the mirror and thought to ourselves, and we hold onto it. Looking for things to change on a constant basis so that some sort of {perfection?} can be achieved. We forget all the positives. When does it stop though? When do we look in the mirror and say...i accept myself the way i am. I won't lie to you, i haven't been able to do it yet. I try hard though. You need to as well. We need to collectively start to love ourselves. Holding onto the positives and letting go of the negatives. 

Here's how we start:

Start countering every negative thought you think with something positive. When someone says, "wow you have great eyes!" Simply say "thank you." Don't look away and say "oh goodness, you must be joking. They are so (negative adjective/statement that you would normally say.") Instead of self bashing, return the compliment. "Thank you! Your hair is amazing today." (or whatever you find pleasant about them in the moment.)  This is tremendously hard for the majority of women i have met, that i know, and that i speak to, and yes, myself included. It takes time. You need to mentally prepare yourself to take a compliment. Practice those type of conversations in your head. It helps, i swear! You will catch yourself about to return a compliment with a self hate remark and either pause your sentence awkwardly like i do most of the time when it happens- or actually return the compliment.

We as women, need to come together in almost a "kumbayah" (hell if i know how to spell that word!) type of circle and start supporting each other and helping each other see the beauty every single one of us has. We need to teach our children that, Perfection is not the cover of a magazine, perfection is when you accept yourself.  

Below is the Dove Beauty Sketches Promo for the Real Women Campaign. The truths behind it is harsh.

Below that still is a comment section.

 For every woman who reads this, i want you to list 3 positives about yourself in the comments as a reminder to yourself that, You are beautiful.