Israel Bans Underweight Models

Israel has made a bold statement to the world by banning underweight models.

Hopefully, this will be the start of more awareness being brought to the destructive world of modeling--not only for the models themselves, but for the young girls who wish to emulate them.

I think Israel has taken an amazing step in the right direction for all women.

Please check out my Huffington Post blog to read more!

Book Promotion and Marketing

My days are so full right now.

I'm learning the ropes on the whole book promotion and marketing scene. I'm really enjoying the experience, but wow--it takes up a lot of time!

And the big news in my youngest's life is that he is all about climbing up the stairs by putting his feet down instead of his knees onto the steps. Major achievement!

The middle child saw a super hero comic in a cereal box and is now addicted to everything super hero. When he puts on his jammies at night he magically transforms into the super hero of the moment--Flash, Iron Man, or Spider Man.

And my oldest's teacher has been telling me how well she's been doing in school: taking charge, looking for extra work, and showing amazing self-confidence.

And life marches forward for me!

So, if you haven't had a chance to read Stripping Down yet, you can read a preview on Amazon.

Also, you can read reviews on Amazon and Goodreads!

Here's a link to a blog by Adrian Magnuson with a review of Stripping Down.

Jennifer Aniston's Beauty Regimen

I’m not sure I’m totally buying into Jennifer Aniston actually spending this much money on her beauty regimen.

According to Nicole Fabian-Weber on Cafe Mom, Jennifer Aniston’s monthly beauty bill is roughly $8,000.

Here’s the alleged beauty breakdown:

•Euoko neck cream made with crystals from the planet Mars, $450

•Tracie Martyn Spa Red Carpet Facials, $50.

•Tracie Martyn goodie bag of products, $390

•Mila Moursi Rejuvinating Serum, $350

•Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar, $2.50

•Dr. Hauschka Rose Day Cream, $40

•Private yoga sessions with Mandy Ingber, $$3,500

•Dietitian Carrie Watt's delivery service, $2,700

Well, this list of expenses does include some food, too, so I’m not sure that’s really fair to include in a list of beauty expenses since, you know, a girl’s got to eat.

I would also think that a lot of these products are probably gifted to her, so she may well use all these things, but is she really spending the money for them?

I suppose the issue that I could see really being serious is—how are other women supposed to compete with that?

The truth is—we aren’t. Just because superstars spend that much attention to their looks doesn’t mean we have to.

It’s easier for us grown women who have realized as well as we can that looks are not what matter to say, who cares? But what about younger, impressionable women who may look to these exemplars of beauty and think they need to look that way, too?

I was going to say, why can’t more stars just be more au naturel in the world? But then they get their photos taken at their worst moments and plastered across a magazine cover.

Who or what will break the cycle?

Lady Gaga Still Struggles with Feelings of Low Self-Worth

I’ll admit I was never the biggest Lady Gaga fan, although I did like a lot of the songs off her first album.

This feature on MSNBC by Courtney Garcia made me like what she represents more.

I’d kind of fallen into the camp who felt she’d been overplayed and that she was just all about being over-the-top to get noticed, but i really hadn’t ever read any interviews with her.

To learn that she experienced bullying as a youth and is open to talk about it gave me newfound respect for her.

Appearing Sunday night on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on Winfrey's OWN network, the singer discussed being bullied as a kid and the impact it’s had on her self-esteem and personal call-to-action as a celebrity activist. The singer says schoolmates threw trash at her and called her a “slut,” and those memories inspire her to promote empowerment through her music and to further anti-bullying initiatives.

“All the praise you receive, something inside of you is scarred by those experiences,” said the 25-year-old singer. “Sometimes I feel worthless.”

The fact that a success like Lady Gaga can still experience feelings of low self-worth even after all she has achieved tells me a lot about how important our early experiences are in making us who we are.

There is something so cathartic about looking at the stories of our lives from the place where we are today. Some artists do their digging through memoir or songwriting and singing or visual arts or dance.

It doesn’t matter what venue or genre we choose to examine our lives—it just seems to matter that we open ourselves to all our stories, both positive and negative—to really come to peace with ourselves, even as we may still struggle with less than perfect feelings about ourselves at times.