Internet, this is what a real naked woman looks like.
Ten years ago, in October, I started this blog because I wanted you fine citizens of the Internet to know what a real naked woman looked like. Unphotoshopped, without plastic surgery, just naked and completely free. I also, though, much more importantly, wanted to perhaps inspire you to celebrate and love your own bodies. The bodies that you really had. To love them exactly as they were. I was tired, even then, of the way the media was treating all of us, and especially our bodies and how it was creating a horrible cycle of self-hatred with its unrealistic standards. We were literally making ourselves sick. It had to stop.
If we can not love ourselves we'll never be able to love one another. If we can not love one another, well, actually, if you have been reading here for any amount of time, you know I just want us all to love it out. Together. To create a more compassionate and kinder world. Where love comes first. We are all one, you know. Especially when we're willing to be truly naked.
It's been a really long time of true love for me on the internet. A really, really long time.
A decade later, which honestly feels like an eternity in my own life, there are finally choirs of voices literally shouting out loud about how we need to love our bodies. And each other.
Lady Gaga has just joined the fray. I wanted to just hug her and thank her madly when I found out about her Born This Way Foundation and her Body Revolution 2013 because, well there's nothing like a Lady Gaga to get a revolution started. I am glad that she joined all of us in this crazy dance. A cult-icon like Lady Gaga can only fuel the kinds of important and loving conversations that we already should be having. Not just with women. With everyone. Each of us who claim citizenship on this big blue ball that's spinning through space. In other words, YOU. It's my hope that this will truly happen.
I've always told every one of you to embrace and love your own personal insecurities, that we are all beautiful not because of some pre-defined standard but because of the exquisite and unique differences that make us exactly who we are. You are you and you could never ever be anyone else.
Own your glitter, I always say. Own it and shine. Because right this very moment you are just exactly and just as beautiful as you should be.
❦
