What Not To Wear

While watching What Not To Wear the other day, I grabbed my paper and pen and started jotting down things I heard them saying. Not just from our favorite's Stacy and Clinton. I paid attention to the girl on the other end. The one saying she "didn't have time", never felt "pretty enough for beautiful clothes", or "dressing up will make me seem weak and 'girly' ". Personally, I have ALWAYS enjoyed dressing up. Though I am a huge sports fanatic and was playing basketball with all the boys till dusk, I never turned down an opportunity to put an outfit together. Now that I am older, I have been reflecting back on that. Was I shallow?
Stacy said something very powerful on a whim. It wasn't rehearsed, it wasn't scripted, or fed to her. She simply said, " neglecting your outer beauty has been neglecting your inner beauty's true potential."

"WOW."
Is all that came to mind while I hurried to catch it on paper. What a powerful thought. With respect to your inner beauty and potential, every woman should feel her presence is necessary. When you make yourself known to others and show that side of womanly nature, you are in your natural frame.
My friends, it is not unnatural for a woman to be beautiful.

Find the balance. Find the comfort. Find the beauty.

It's there! Each of us possess it and each in our own likeness. Do not compare it to the girl next to you in the mall. You won't find your potential there.
Take from this what you will, but remember to respect yourself in all areas of beauty. Do not feel you are too good to find yourself putting an outfit together, but in turn, don't find yourself too beautiful to need anything other than your looks.

By the end of the episode, the shy cellist who was too busy to care found herself saying,

"I don't know what clothes and make-up have to do with playing my Cello, but my confidence has soared when I play and I feel amazing."

Beautifully balanced is the goal.

Have you ever noticed...

Have you ever noticed that someone you see at first glance might not be as beautiful as some, but as you start talking to them and realizing their personality is fun, their mannerisms are addictive and their intent to do good is refreshing?

I've experienced this myself a few times. An older woman, not as aesthetically pleasing to the eye, was just as hilarious as a stand-up comedian on Comedy central. She was very funny, smart, confident...
She was BEAUTIFUL!

Another example:
While visiting Aruba, I had the opportunity to meet a most incredible woman we will call Janet. While my husband and I were walking around the pool at the resort, we were trying to find a place to lay our towels out and relax. As we came around a corner, there was a woman ( a mom of children in their 20s), super tan, reading a book with two available chairs next to her. I asked her if she were saving the seats, she said she'd be so thrilled to have us sit by her. We quickly placed our stuff, she continued to read and we headed to the pool. When we came back to lay out, we got talking a little. Though I already thought Janet was beautiful, I learned something so incredible about her in just the 10 minutes I had been conversing with her.
Janet was dying of breast cancer. She was Stage 4 and still cheerful. As I listened to her share her story of Chemo, recovery, surgeries, etc. I realized how absolutely beautiful she was! Though her breast were made of stomach from her muscles and her hair was shorter than the glamorous length of waist, she was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't help but become such great friends with her for our 10 days in Aruba.
Her strength, resilience, experience, optimism, confidence, and acceptance of herself was so attractive. That, my friends, is what beauty is about.

Evolution

One of my favorite movies is called, "The Women" (If you get a chance to watch it, you should. It's fun.). One of the women in the movie works for a huge magazine company in the heart of NYC as Editor in Chief.
At a scene in the movie, she's talking to her friend's 13-year-old daughter who is having some issues in life. She finds her skipping school and hanging out on a park bench with a friend dressed as what we would call "adult-like", if you know what I mean. Short skirt, tons of make-up, etc.

The woman sits with her on the bench and sarcastically asks, "Do you have a smoke?" Shockingly, the 13-year-old pulls a pack of ciggarettes from her bag and hands them to her. The woman immediately throws them in her own bag.
She exclaims, "Does your mother know you smoke?!" . The girl explains, "I do it so I won't eat."
As the conversation continues, the girl divulges how she decided to smoke to stay thin. She says, "I want to look like the girls in your magazine." The woman laughs and says, "Well, so do the models!"





CHALLENGE: Invite atleast 5 of your girlfriends, or a daughter, sister, mom, etc. to view this.

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Onslaught

Let's talk to our daughters before the media does.

click HERE to view what I am talking about.

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This is the beginning...

Hello women, girls, mothers, daughters, wives, sisters!

This is the start!

My name is Jacqueline Gunderson. My close ones simply call me Jacque. You are more than welcome to call me Jacqueline, Jacque, or whatever crazy nickname you find amusing.

I recently became a mentor of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. I know you've all seen the commercials, but when have you ever looked at the site they advertise?

Me, being a fond believer in the true beauty we posses as women, found the website absolutely refreshing. It's a breath of honest air I feel we all should inhale.

I will start speaking at different locations, different events, different places, etc. on beauty within. Not the beauty we see in magazines! Sure, it's fun to copy our favorite celebrity's hair style, but to what extent do we sacrafice our true identity?

My goal is to study, search, learn, grow and most importantly SHARE these findings with all the women, girls, mothers, daughters, and sisters of Utah.