That one thing for the new School Year(:

That one thing<3 Gotta love 1D


Okay so I have once again been gone for a very long while....and I am sorry but between my own confidence issues and enjoying summer I really didn't have the time or words to put into a blog. I have more [bittersweet] news....I will be gone this week (Aug. 20-24) being a camp counselor for CAMP HOPE<3 It will be a really great experience but I will not be able to blog at all. I do, however, think going to this camp will inspire and motivate me to blog more often. So now....ONTO THE BLOG(:
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School will be starting soon everyone!!! And it may have started for a few of you already! So first day of school you will wake up and make sure you have your backpack/bag, pens and pencils, paper, binder, cute new clothes, hair done all nice, and that attitude of hanging onto every last piece of summer. But one thing you cannot forget to pack, especially if it is a super big day like mine (last first day of high school CLASS OF 2013 or maybe your first day of high school CLASS OF 2016), is your CONFIDENCE. It is the number one thing that will help you through your stressful first week and maybe even grab the attention of that cute guy/girl you saw in first period;)

My advice for keeping this confidence not only the first week but all year is to have "that one thing." Have a go to ____ that whenever you see it you remember to keep your head up high. I actually have a few things like this only because they are mostly jewelry and I can't always wear them. I have a rubber bracelet that actually says confidence, a pair of flower earrings that I adore, and my new favorite chapstick that is flavored so deliciously!!! These reminders don't have to be physical either. Some days I wake up and put on some uplifting music that puts me in a great mood in the morning that lasts all day(: Sometimes I write sappy teenage poetry or sing badly at the top of my lungs dramatically on my balcony.(: Even volunteer work can help if that's what makes you happy! It is all up to you!!!

And, like I always say, when you are confident it is a lot easier to pass it on. I'm sorry but I have a lot of friends who are very insecure and I love them but I won't go to them when I am feeling insecure because I just get empty reassurance. You cannot reassure someone if you aren't sure enough yourself because you end up telling others what they want to hear instead of something that can truly help.
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ANOTHER BACK TO SCHOOL TIP::::
Okay so we all make those "New Year's Resolutions" that maybe last until mid-February if you really stick with them :P I am guilty of doing it to, but I honestly think the best time to make these resolutions is at the beginning of a new school year(: Think about it: you have a brand new beginning, new teachers, new classrooms, you make new friends, see new people. You have the chance for a life makeover! So in spirit of this I have made 7 "back to school resolutions"(:
1- Blog at least once a week
2- Vlog at least once a week (YES! The vlog is coming!!!)
3- Start a personal blog to get through the tough times
4- Dress in a way that makes me feel good!
5- Get all A's on my first report card of Senior year!!
6- STOP PROCRASTINATING!
7- Join at least 2 more clubs this year

So I challenge you to do the same(: Comment your list of them below or email them to me at ourbeautifulselves@gamil.com or even facebook them to me if you are on my personal facebook(:
Have a great rest of the summer and an even better school year!!!!
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:) Sorry I just had to<3
STAY BEAUTIFUL AND LET LIFE HAPPEN <3
Check out my best friends new blog(: She is great with words----> emmaknowsall17.blogspot.com

Photo-Stop

          In the August issue of Seventeen Magazine, editor-in chief Ann Shoket has made a promise to her teen readers.  The promise comes in the form of a “Body Peace Treaty,” vowing to “never change girls’ body or face shapes” with photoshop or airbrushing.  Pinned side by side were two nearly identical pictures detailing in red ink the exact changes made to a photograph before it reaches the glossy pages of Seventeen magazine: clearing a loose hair or two, removing a visible bra strap, smoothing clothing folds and changing the color of a drape in the background.  The entire page is signed two X’s, two O’s and a single, friendly A for Ann Shoket, as though the entire thing was passed between friends through folded notes over an Elementary school desk.
          Julia Bluhm, the fourteen year old girl who inspired this promise with her petition and mock photo shoot, is claiming a victory for girls everywhere, and few, including myself, are going to argue with her.  And now a new set of girls, seventeen year old Emma Stydahar and sixteen year old Carina Cruz, are following Bluhm’s momentum and asking Teen Vogue to take a similar promise with a very different response.
          After they held a mock runway featuring real and diverse teen girls outside of Teen Vogue’s office, they reportedly were given a short meeting with the editors of Teen Vogue, where they were handed issues of Teen Vogue littered with Post It notes designating diversity as they believed it; mostly skinny african american models.  The girls were then sent away with their homework.
          It’s the industries little open secret; the glossy fantasy we see in the pages of magazines and advertisements everywhere is only slightly more achievable as a CGI dragon.  That super skinny celebrity you saw on the cover doesn’t really have skin that clear, her hair is not always that perfect, and no, she does not actually that skinny.  For good measure, the editors shaved five pounds off of her sides with a computer program before sending it to the press, for thousands of people to sigh at, never wondering where she must keep her kidneys.
           According to Seventeen Magazine, that has never been an option.  Body and face shape alterations were always ethically out of line, which might explain why they were so receptive to Bluhm’s complaints.  But according to Teen Vogue, body shape alterations have never been an option either, at least when it comes to the non-models and readers they regularly feature in their magazine.  That has to mean something?  Right?
          The use of photoshop to alter weight and body shape, lighten darker skinned models and erase features in an attempt to uniform beauty are unquestionably wrong in my opinion, especially when it deals with younger readers, like those Seventeen and Teen Vogue inevitably reach. But the real question doesn’t rest in those issues, since cooperative or otherwise, both magazine have said that they do not alter body size.
          Julia Bluhm’s petition included a request for one, unaltered, non-photoshopped spread per issue.  That request was denied.  Both girls have requested diversity within the magazine, including different races and body sizes besides that of the typical model.  Those requests, it seems, have been skimmed over.  And looking through one of my sisters issues of Teen Vogue, out of the easily hundred women featured within, there were no more than ten non-white models, and only one body shape.
          To be fair, not all blame can be placed upon the magazines.  Designers enjoy the ideal presented by the photographer, and as a result, they usually only send the smallest sizes of their clothing samples.  Unless designers start sending more realistic sizes, bigger models are not only unwanted, they are useless.   
          Magazines like these exist to present a fashionable fantasy, where people wake up each day with obedient hair and perfect complexions.  And people pay for these magazines for that fantasy, right?  These magazines never promised to show non-fiction, and they never warned us they wouldn’t.  
          So where do we draw the line?
          Is photoshop okay for loose hair and bra straps, or is that the same as digital liposuction?  And what constitutes diversity and what is fair of us to expect?  And who do we blame?
          Comment below with your opinions.

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Astley, Amy, ed. Teen Vogue Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web.

          

Fleming, Olivia. "'We're Being Unfairly Accused': Teen Vogue Dismisses 14-year-old during Meeting after Anti-photoshop Protest." Daily Mail. N.p., 12 July 2012. Web. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172781/Were-unfairly-accused-Teen-Vogue-dismisses-14-year-old-girls-meeting-anti-Photoshop-protest.html?ito=feeds-newsxml>.

         

Intern Lauren. "Seventeens No-Photoshop Pledge: Will Teen Vogue Be Next." Bust Magazine. N.p., 6 July 2012. Web. <http://bust.com/blog/seventeens-no-photoshop-pledge-will-teen-vogue-be-next.html>.

          

Shoket, Ann. "Hi from Ann." Seventeen Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web. <http://http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/07/05/ann.august.editors.letter.pdf>.