The question heard around the world.

Your heart starts to pace , your mind is racing , the audience staring at you ,  while you are waiting for the question. "Wait , did I miss the question ?, I have no idea how to answer this question, Why didn't I get the question the last girl got , I could have nailed that.....Just say something , and hope it doesn't sound stupid."

I hope they like me.

I have been doing beauty pageants since I was 17 , and they have been a great pastime in my life. I made friends , I gained confidence , and I accomplished things I never thought I would do.

To people looking from the outside that have never done pageants , probably look at them as pointless, stupid, and maybe even demeaning. I mean who wants to really stand on stage in a tiny swimsuit and be judged by people you don’t know ?

I mean its just really pretty girls competing against each other, for one spot right ?......... Wrong.

Yes , you technically are competing against girls you don’t know for a crown and a title.But to that girl shes competing for so much more. Shes competing for her dream , her future, scholarship money , oppurtunities , and the list can go on and on. Yes the recognition and glam side to it is great, and fun , but theres so much more to it than just that.

I have competed against girls that are educated , talented, career orientated. I have to admit when I compete I have met some of the most ambitious , accomplished young women I have ever met.

Every year the Miss USA , Miss Universe and Miss America is on TV and watched by millions . Viewers are in awe of the beautiful women,  their perfect bodies ,and gorgeous gowns. Due to the pageants being live , theare are sometimes OOPS moments , that sometimes   don’t show  beauty queens in the best light. It can be difficult to be on stage in front of thousands of people and millions at home , waiting on you to answer a question (which can sometimes be controversial topics) perfectly.  One mishap , or stutter  , or mispronounce of a word and social media will have a field day.

Everyone remembers the year when Miss South Carolina Teen USA was in the top 5 and was asked the question: " Why do you think most Americans cant locate the US on a map?"   she boomed her answer and her response  became so huge on TV  instantly !  People looked at her as dumb but she said she was just really nervous and didnt hear the question. 

 The video that got over 60 million views is below.
 

 

As someone who has done pageants and may do another one before I age out ( which is 26 or 27) , I will always have some connection to them , and try to defend them positively.  Of course there is are always good and bad to everything, in one of my future post I will talk about the not so pretty side to beauty  pageants.

 

Till next time…..

Plus Size Beauties

Earlier this year , when the latest sports illustrated  came out , there was something  different in this issue. Yes there were still beautiful women featured in the magazines in swimsuits but , there was something different about one of the women. For the first time ever there was A plus size model featured in the magazine . Model Robyn Lawley who is a size 12, and a very successful model  was featured in the magazine alongside other  non plus size models. The interesting thing to me , was that she does not really look like the image you would think of when you hear “Plus Size” model. She is proportioned well, strikiling beautiful , toned and fit. But according to fashion industry standards she is plus size. She would be looked at as normal /average size to many in America.



Robyn Lawley

Is this the start of something new? A new side of beauty in Fashion? It’s not that, there are not lots of curvier girls, it’s just that, they are not shown or advertised as much in the fashion world. I think adding this model (plus size) in the issue was great, and monumental, and will create a precedent for the future. People like diversity, not just when it comes to weight, but also races, ethnicities, people are different and this diversity shows.

There are not as many plus size fashion agencies, but there are many successful plus size models although we may not hear their names talked about as much. Recently I came across a reality show on Hulu , called “Curvy Girls “ which follows the lives of  4 full figured models .It shows the ups and downs of the plus size modeling industry and the life of a plus size model. It was interesting to see that there are models that are making just as much money as smaller sized models one of the models said "the biggest job I ever booked was 15,000 a day"






( Left : Tess Holiday for Monif C Swimwear , Right: Tess and her husband )

When you think of a size 22 , you may not think of someone who is signed to a major modeling agency but Tess Holiday is. If you do not know who Tess Holiday is , she is a plus size model that has gained tons of popularity through Instagram. She has over 500 thousand followers , and that number is growing daily. She recently got signed to Milk Model Management in the UK. They discoevered her through Instagram , and noticed that she had more followers than most of the models they already had on their roster.

Recently pictures have been released of Tess modeling for Monif C Swimwear collection and the internet has been buzzing about it !  Their have been negative  comments about her weight , and her looking unhealthy but, there are also  so many comments about her being an inspiration.  “Youre such an inspiration !” , “Yesss Beautiful” , are some of the nicer comments. When it comes to beauty ,  people will always have their own opinions , and  it seems that our society is starting to embrace more diverse looks of beauty . Maybe its because we as people are becoming more accepting , or maybe people are tired of seeing the same images of beauty all the time.



False Beauty Image

The 2012 Dove Distortion of beauty Ad , showed how what we view as beauty is not even real. How the image that you may be looking at , that celebrity or model you so desperately want to look like , doesn't even really look like that herself. This ad spoke volumes . It is impossible to reach a standard of beauty , when the standard being shown isn't even real.  

The video is below:

Society, the media, celebrities, the beauty and fashion industry , all of these have influences on what people think the standard of beauty should be. The standard of beauty for a long time has been blue eyes, blonde hair , and a  size 2. This standard to many is unattainable, if you are different a race, weight class, then you don’t fall into this standard. Does this mean you are not beautiful? (Of course not ! ) Because you don’t have certain features,  or the numbers on your scale don’t say what society is saying is beautiful , now what ? Your favorite celebrity whose beauty and talent you admire, may fit the standard of beauty .So what does that say about you when you don’t?  The people who fit that standard are praised and those who don’t aren't, so now you feel you are not good enough. You want to be accepted more, you want to fit into that standard of beauty society has set. So you’ll look up beauty products, look up what your favorite celebrities beauty tricks are, what diet you can do, what procedure you can do , to look like everyone else……beautiful.

Red carpets, cameras flashing, perfect hair, glistening white teeth, flawless skin: these are the images we may see on the red carpet, looking flawlessly and effortlessly beautiful. We at home may not be thinking about, what these celebrities did to look so “flawless”. All we see is the perfect image of beauty , that we all so desperately want and envy ( maybe not everyone). We don’t think about the thousands of dollars they may have put into getting work done (plastic surgery) or ,the excessive diets that they may do ….all in the name of beauty.

Julia Roberts 2011 Lancome ad banned in UK because of too mich photoshop

The beauty industry photoshops images all of the time in ads , billboards, magazines , campaigns a lot of the images we see all of the time. It may be a straighter nose , lighter skin, a longer nose , slimmer thighs , and the list goes on and on. What are we really looking at and admiring? Are we looking at a model , or are we looking at what use to be that model and now an altered image completely ? That image that some teenager is looking at in her favorite magazine, thinking about how “I wished I looked like that”. That’s impossible because the model in the picture doesn't even look like that.

What really is the standard of beauty , who is making this standard , who can  society ever be satisfied when the images of beauty are not real ?