Cameron Russell: A Role Model

Cameron Russell (photo: Twitter)

Cameron Russell is a Victoria's Secret angel. She's walked in runway shows, done print ads, and starred in commercials for the world's largest lingerie company. She's also worked for some of my favorite designers: Vivienne Westwood, Chanel, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and Dolce and Gabbana.

Cameron did a TED talk about being a highly successful model. This is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell. I never put links in my pieces, but I wanted to today to draw your attention to it--it's a great talk. Please go watch it right now! Then come back and read the rest of this piece. ;-)

In this talk, Cameron talks about how she's won the "genetic lottery." She's tall, she's thin, she's white. Our society has decided that when it comes to appearances, those are the things that matter. Cameron mentions that she's gotten out of traffic tickets because of her looks as well as gotten free items when she's forgotten her money.  Those are the things she has been, as she puts it, "cashing in" on.

Cameron talked about and showed pictures of the amount of work that professionals do on her to get the photos they want. Do they edit photos? Yes. But she also talks about the hair, makeup, clothes, and photography that go into making the photos we see. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recognize her if I passed her on the street. She's gorgeous in her every day photos, but she doesn't look anything like the cover girl photos that thousands of people see. For more on photo editing, check out this post I wrote a few months ago.

Cameron mentioned that little girls come up to her and tell her that they want to be models when they grow up. Cameron's first question to the kids is, "Why? You can be anything." She says that she is in that top echelon of girls with "the skinniest thighs, the shiniest hair," but she's still incredibly insecure about the way she looks. She has to think about the way she looks every day.

Cameron graduated from Columbia University. She is realistic that she won't be able to model forever. She's already 25, which means she's already nearing the end of her modeling career. I have a feeling we'll be hearing great things from her.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

5 Ways to Raise Your Self-Esteem--Fast!

Are the mid-winter blues getting you down? Me too! :-) Every now and again during the winter it's easy to feel sad, which can lead to being overly critical, which can lead to poor self-esteem. Here are five sure-fire ways to get you back to loving yourself in no time!

1. Write down 10 things you love about yourself. Start with 5 physical traits (e.g. hair, eyes, voice, etc) and then write 5 personality traits (e.g. passionate, loving, caring, etc), so you can identify the difference.

2. What's a chore you've been dreading (e.g. cleaning out the fridge, moving the couch to vacuum under it, etc)? Give yourself a finite amount of time in which to get it done and then finish it! It'll be off your mind and you'll be surprised at how much better you feel!

3. Do something that makes you feel good. Again, so you can identify how you think about yourself, start with the physical self: paint your nails, use a great body wash, or try a new shade of lipstick! Then do something that makes your mind feel good: do a brain teaser, meditate, or solve a self-problem you've been working on lately.

4. Identify something you are ridiculously good at and enjoy doing (e.g. painting, singing, writing, etc) and make at least 15 minutes a day for yourself to work on that passion. Having time to do your hobby every day will allow you to relax and clear your mind.

5. Do something nice for someone else. Anything from giving a compliment to sharing food to giving a gift will do the trick here! When you do something that is not egocentric, you will get a sense of fulfillment that will help you feel better about yourself.

Make today great!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

5 Ways to Feel Good in 5 Seconds

In accordance with what has turned into "Feel-Good Friday" I thought it would be nice to have a short and sweet post about ways you can make yourself feel good in only 5 seconds! 5 seconds doesn't sound like a lot of time, but if you think about it, 5 seconds is a decent amount of time to get all of these things done if you commit to it wholly for the full time. I mean, we're all busy; even those "Get Abs in 20 Minutes a Day" things seem like they take too much time. So take 5 seconds! These are not methods that I have researched or have necessarily been scientifically proven; they're just things I do when I want to turn my day around and feel happy!

Don't know who did the original,
but I absolutely love this!

1. Smile at yourself. This one can have a huge effect on you. If you live alone or you don't see the person you live with in the morning, starting off with a smile from yourself is actually a great way to greet the day! Think about a silly joke, make a funny face, or remember a time when you laughed really hard. Make sure those eyes crinkle at the corners! Smiling with just your mouth doesn't do it.
Caveat: While looking in the mirror, do not focus on what you don't like about what you see. That will just make you stay sad or grumpy.

http://www.letsmove.gov

2. Get moving! Now, if you take 5 seconds to get off the couch, you can't count that as the 5 seconds of moving! Once standing, run to the other end of the room you're in and back. Or do 9 jumping jacks in 5 seconds. Or drop to the ground, do a push-up (a real one; no knee push-ups!), and then jump up as high as you can (don't do this one if you have low-blood pressure, because you might pass out). Do something that wakes you up quickly--then go do your regular gym routine that takes longer than 5 seconds. :)

So cute!

3. Tell yourself you're great. We don't have cheerleaders to get our confidence up, 5 seconds are definitely enough time to give yourself a decent pep talk. Tell yourself why you like yourself and mean it! Feel that confidence boost and take it with you for the rest of the day!

funnyjunk.com

4. Take your vitamins! Half the time research says vitamins are good for you, half the time they're supposedly bad for you. All I'm saying is that when I take mine, I feel better than when I don't take them. And it takes literally 5 seconds. Well, unless you get the giant horse pill kind...those take longer to swallow. ;)

My kittens!

5. Feel love. There are three options for this one. Choose whichever one is right for you.

• For the people in love with someone else: Feel it and embrace it!!! You know exactly what I mean about love making you feel good.
• For the people who don't believe in love with other people and now think this post is ridiculous since I brought up love: Remember the feeling you got when you fell in love with something, whether it be your job, your hobby, your cat, your favorite TV show, anything! Feel that excitement and joy and contentment.
• For the people who feel like they should be in love because they used to be, but aren't anymore (this can pertain to a person or a thing or a situation): Why did you fall in love the first time? Let that feeling completely envelop you. Maybe you'll get that little spark back! :) Take it with you!

I hope all of you have a great weekend! Thank you for making this week such a great one for me! This blog and all of the feedback I get makes me feel great because I know you guys are reading it and it helps some people. :) I really appreciate it! Writing it takes a little longer than 5 seconds, but it still makes me feel good!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Anorexia: Lady Gaga and Me

Lady Gaga looking fabulous!

Lady Gaga has started a "Body Revolution 2013." She's been getting a lot of media attention lately for some photos of her on tour. It looks like she has gained a significant amount of weight and the media is ripping her apart. Gaga is taking this chance to tell her followers about her struggle with her weight for the last 11 years; also, that she has been a victim of anorexia and bulimia. She has posted some photos that show her as she is, without all the costumes and corsets. And, may I be the next in line to say that she looks fantastic! She is encouraging women and girls, as well as men, everywhere to be comfortable with their bodies and share their photos online. She is opening up about how it's more important to be healthy than to be super-skinny like the media pushes all of us to be. I love this!!! To be honest, I'm not a die-hard Gaga fan; I don't really listen to pop music all that much. This really got my attention, though! It's exactly what girls need: someone they admire and respect to say "enough" to the way women feel less-than if we're not uber-skinny like all the women we see on TV and in magazines.

Lady Gaga looks amazing!

The reason I like this campaign so much is that it is about health and loving who you are, not only about loving what you look like. While I really like the idea of loving what you look like, I feel like that can be used as a cop-out instead of working to get healthy. "Healthy" does not necessarily mean "skinny." Lady Gaga looks healthy and I think she looks pretty damn good. Is she a size 0? No. But so what? When did we get so stuck on having "little stick figures with poofy lips*" as our role models when it comes to what we look like?

I have struggled with anorexia for years, just like Lady Gaga and thousands of other women and girls have. I wanted so desperately to fit in, I felt terribly out of control, and I thought that if I was a 00 I would be pretty and popular (I didn't even know 00 was a size until I moved back to the States, but the second I knew it was, I had to be that size). I was known but I wasn't popular. Was I pretty? I don't think so...I was bony. I don't even have photos of myself during the first few years of it because I hated my body so much. Was I in control? Sure, of what I ate, but the further I went along the road, the more out of control I felt. I passed out at inopportune moments, I had the lowest self-esteem I've ever had, and I did things that were hurtful to myself and others to keep my struggle secret. Am I completely over it? No. I don't know if those of us who have experienced anorexia or bulimia ever really "get over it" like so many people who haven't gone through it think we should. But I fight every day to keep moving forward.

Now, I am 5'3" and I weigh 108 pounds. I'm a size 2 and I've "grown out" of most of my XS shirts. I have literally spent hours crying over this. Crying over being a size 2, because now I'm "fat." Crying about weighing more than 100 pounds because I used to weigh 97 so that must mean that I'm fat, now that I'm 11 pounds heavier. Crying over the fact that I can't wear super-teeny t-shirts that tiny pre-pubescent sixth graders are wearing. But I know that what I'm doing now is the right thing. I do yoga every day. I work out 3-6 times a week. I see a psychologist once a week. I eat at least 1600 calories a day. I should probably be eating more than that. It is still so hard. But I am getting better.

This is an epidemic the size of which a lot of people do not realize. Keep talking about it, keep sharing your stories, keep trying to get better, keep sharing your photos with Lady Gaga! Let's have a media take-over of women who love their healthy bodies! We've all heard of Take Back the Night; let's Take Back the Media! In keeping with what I'm preaching here, I suppose I owe this post a photo.

Me, Body Revolution 2013.

It is actually surprisingly hard to share this. It took me about 30 minutes to get a photo of myself that I could tolerate and I'm still finding problems with this one. I am so self-conscious and I don't like everyone seeing this. But if Lady Gaga can do it, I can, too. You can, too, at LittleMonsters.com.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

*Edna Mode, "The Incredibles"