Posts Tagged ‘modeling’

Yes, Oprah! And I need YOUR help to make it happen! I just uploaded a video on the Oprah website auditioning to have my own TV talk show to help girls around the world on Oprah Winfrey’s new network, OWN. If there was ever a time you wanted to stand behind the mission to empower girls and build self-esteem, this is it! As an author, speaker, and self-esteem coach, I’ve seen a dire need to get this message out in a bigger way; and as a mom to an 8-year-old girl, I also know that there needs to be much more positive and inspiring television programming for our kids…how many parents feel the same way??! YOU CAN HELP.

PLEASE take 30 seconds and vote for my show, it’s truly essential that you do for it to get noticed. There are over 7,500 submissions at this point, many who entered early and have been able to gather a ton of votes, so I’ve got lots of catching up to do! The good news is that you can vote MULTIPLE times and it’s really easy to do (no signing up, just voting!) Voting closes July 3, so please, VOTE ASAP and VOTE OFTEN…and ask your friends to vote too (how about inviting your Facebook friends to vote?!) We’ve got to create a buzz for Oprah and her producers to notice, and we all know how important a show Empowering Girls From the Inside Out would be!

And if you (please!) add a comment to your vote, it will create even more of a buzz. Let’s show Oprah and her producers how essential it is to give our youth today, especially our girls, the attention they need and deserve to become the powerful women our world needs tomorrow.

Here’s the link to the video and to vote:    http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=19866&promo_id=1 

Please vote, it’s urgent, and important. And pass this along to your friends…and ask them to pass it along to their friends…who pass it along to their friends…you get the idea And don’t forget, you can vote numerous times through July 3rd. Thank you SO MUCH for your support!

As you may know, I’m quite passionate about building the self-esteem of young girls, and as a national speaker and the author of the Heartlight Girls series, I’ve always felt the motivation to do so. Yet as I write this today on my daughter’s eighth birthday (Happy Birthday Ella!), it is in my role as a mother that my passion, and compassion, is fueled even more to make a difference in girls’ lives. With much recent news of teen suicides attributed to depression and relational aggression/bullying, my concern for our youth is magnified, as I’m sure it is with many other parents.

Recent statistics show that every 7 minutes a child is bullied, and that 77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally, or physically. Bullying causes feelings of rejection, anxiety, and unworthiness in a child; these are some of the same feelings which are the main causes of suicide. The Center for Disease Control reports that the third leading cause of death, behind accidents and homicide, amongst teenagers ages 15 to 24 is suicide.  Even more disturbing is the fact that suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for children between the ages of 10 and 14. Self-esteem issues and bullying are worse than ever in today’s schools, and unfortunately often beginning as early as first and second grade and magnifying in the upper elementary and middle school years.

It is with these disturbing facts that I ask your assistance. I dealt with my share of bullying while working in the modeling and acting industries, and it was a challenge even as an adult. But to know our children deal with it on a daily basis breaks my heart. So Heartlight Girls is taking a stand against school bullying. In addition to writing the Heartlight Girls series (the next book, Star’s Attraction: A Girl’s Discovery on Inner Beauty, is due out near the holidays!) and developing products, I’m also building a series of expansive self-esteem programs to develop feelings of self-worth in our girls. And I’d really like your help.

I’d love to know your concerns, your needs, and your desires. What would be helpful to you, and what do you feel would be important in a self-esteem program? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts by taking a brief survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LT3Y535. Please pass this link along to others (parents, teachers, girls), for the more input we receive, the better we can create what you would like to see, as well as incorporate what’s needed to help our youth to stay strong, empowered, and in a position to always make wise choices.

By completing this survey, in addition to being a contributor in this important mission, you’ll be entered into a drawing to receive tickets for you and a guest to attend one of the Heartlight Girls Self-Esteem programs! Girls receiving this email can take the survey themselves, share it with a parent, or ideally, have both of you take it! Then we’ll have double the input, and your family will have double the chances of winning!

Again, here’s the link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LT3Y535. Thank you for your participation. Your opinion will shape the young girls we work with here at Heartlight Girls!

This past fall, I’ve been blogging, as well as commenting on my Twitter and Facebook pages, about the dangerously skinny photoshopped ads by designer Ralph Lauren and the firing of his loyal size 4 model for being "too fat." (see earlier posts). Maybe I’m sensitive to all of this due to my years of modeling in that crazy industry, because, even then, it would madden me as to the pressure the models faced to be ultra thin. Everyone wants to blame "those skinny models," yet in their defense, it’s really the designers and advertisers who are to blame. Models aren’t known for their sense of self or high self-esteem, especially the younger ones, and will often "do what it takes" to be accepted, seek approval, or get a job. They will often be cruel physically, mentally, and emotionally to themselves – and to each other!

Unfortunately this behavior filters down into our schools with the increasing popularity of "mean girls," and that’s why I am so passionate about getting out there and reaching these girls. It was challenging to handle all this as an adult as a model, but it breaks my heart to see it happen with our young girls today!

More on that at a later time…for now, here is a call to action to help stop a contributing factor to our girls’ obsession with thinness. Filmmaker Darryl Roberts has become an advocate for body acceptance since making the fabulous documentary AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.  Now he’s spearheading a boycott against Ralph Lauren that’s really intended to get the attention and wise up the whole fashion industry. He needs us all to join the boycott! Here’s the link to sign up for the boycott and learn more about Roberts’ campaign: join the boycott

Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I blogged about the Ralph Lauren ad that was getting some attention that showed a skeletal-sized model (see my October 8 post) because I was so triggered by what I had experienced in my years in the modeling industry. This morning on the Today Show, that model, Filippa Hamilton, a size 4, announced she was fired from her 8 year career with Ralph Lauren because she was "too fat." Her termination actually took place last April, but she decided to come forward with it when this photoshopped ad appeared of her – it’s been recently exposed that her head was used on another model’s (very skinny) body.

( To see Filippa’s appearance on the Today Show and to read more, click here )

In speaking to young girls about the current and harmful trend of "mean girls" and bullying, I often admit  how well I can identify with what is going on due to my years in the very competitive modeling industry and some of the experiences I had with mean girls. Just like the girls who bully other girls today in our schools, the bullies of the modeling industry did so due to low feeling of self-worth. The modeling industry is brutal on a girl’s/woman’s self-esteem…can you imagine being a size 4 or 6 and constantly told you are too fat? As models, we would get criticized on a daily basis for one physical "flaw" or another. I learned from the bottom up how to build my self-esteem, and that’s why I’m so passionate about teaching it to others through my speaking and books at Heartlight Girls!

I believe the fault lies with the designers and advertisers who put tremendous, unrealistic pressures on the models, which in turn, filters down to the young girls who want to emulate these models. Thank you, Filippa, for speaking up. If enough of us speak up, the world will pay attention! Would love to hear your comments too, please leave one below!

As a former model, I cannot resist commenting on the recent Ralph Lauren ad portraying an ultra-ultra-thin model that is causing some uproar. Advertisers using models who look like they’re starving (they probably are) teamed with Photoshop-crazy designers are sending out such an unhealthy message to our girls…it’s no wonder cases of eating disorders are what they are.

One thing I never quite understood in the modeling industry was the way top designers "demanded" they have super skinny models. Yes, I know they create their designs in "sample" size and clothes photograph better on a more lean figure, but lean and healthy is one thing…emaciated and skeletal is another. When working in the bigger markets, it was constantly chirped in my ear from my agents to "lose weight" (I was a size 6)…there were designers I just could not work for because I was "too big" and refused to starve myself. I made many sacrifices to work in that industry, but my health and life was not something I was willing to jeopardize.

The ironic thing is that consumers do not appreciate the super skinny the way the designers do. So often after a fashion show I would hear women in the audience commenting how they simply cannot relate to the bone-thin models and therefore had no interest in the clothes. By designers pushing the envelope they way they did with this Ralph Lauren ad, they lose our respect, especially as we as women become more empowered in our true beauty, and concerned for our girls as they face dangerous pressures we never even imagined facing in our vulnerable years. I guess that’s why after years and years of being in that industry I felt compelled to do something proactive and founded Heartlight Girls, teaching girls that "it’s what’s inside that counts!"

This is a great excerpt from: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/fallbeauty/image-of-ultra-thin-ralph-lauren-model-sparks-outrage-521480/): The U.S. isn’t the only place where advertisers are feeling the public backlash over retouching claims. Overseas, a recent Olay ad featuring a virtually wrinkle-free 59-year-old Twiggy caused such an uproar in the UK that the British Parliament recently proposed outlawing retouching in advertisements aimed at teenagers. The movement was initiated by the nation’s Liberal Democrats, whose leader on the issue, Jo Swinson, said:

"Today’s unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago. Airbrushing means that adverts contain completely unattainable images that no one can live up to in real life. We need to help protect children from these pressures and we need to make a start by banning airbrushing in adverts aimed at them. The focus on women’s appearance has got out of hand – no one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure, but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do."