My figure is the opposite of hourglass. My nose is weird from a break when I was a kid. My skin is and has always been a battlefield. My nails are flimsy and sad looking. I have split ends.

But…eh.

The older I get the more difficult it is to summon up my old teenagery angst over my flaws. I’ve learned to dress for my shape. I’ve gotten over my nose. My skin still annoys the crap out of me but I doubt I’ll still be breaking out at age 50 so at least that has an expiration date.

And at some point between the black self-esteem hole of high school and now, I’ve decided that it’s ok to think that I’m beautiful.

For some reason I was always afraid to let myself think so highly of myself. What if I was wrong? What if other people disagreed?

As it turns out, other people are kind of busy with their own stuff so I gave myself permission to think that I’m pretty and awesome and superwoman and a hundred other good things. And, like so many things in life, you become what you think about. As soon as you let yourself think you’re amazing you will be.

Just in case he’s forgotten, I occasionally like to turn to my husband and say, “Aaron? I’m pretty.”

And I am.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  Marianne Williamson

Feed me fashionably fresh