A Beautiful Winner

Hello beautifuls! Spell check is telling me that word is not real, but it totally is. How else would I describe my blog friends? (Yes, Steven, even you especially you.)

Guess what popped up on the news yesterday? This great story about a 14 year-old girl who is taking on Seventeen Magazine over their use of Photoshopped images. Here's a little tidbit from the article: "After being overwhelmed by the number of fellow high-schoolers in her ballet class lamenting their “fat days” and the seemingly impossible quest to be “pretty,” Bluhm realized that the images she saw in the iconic monthly magazine did not represent real adolescent females, and contributed to unattainable ideals." But rather than just complaining about Photoshopped images (a la me), she is petitioning Seventeen and asking them to use one unaltered photo spread in the magazine every month. Do you want to sign her petition and help teens have a better body image? Yes you do! Go here to sign.

This week's winner gets something as beautiful as s/he is. Actually, it's not nearly as beautiful as any of you, but it was the closest thing I could find that was in my budget. (I can't shop at Tiffany's for myself, let alone the blog! Oh hey--it's Mother's Day on Sunday. Hint hint family!)

It's a lovely necklace and earring set. And notice the label: it's from East 5th (Avenue) which is the classiest street in all of NY, therefore this necklace is about as schnazzy as they come. 

The winner is #9 LivingstonslifeinMt! Yay! You're overdue for a win. And I'm so glad the prize wasn't tweezers. 

Wait, don't stop reading just because you know who won! Y'all need to read this: Author Kiersten White  said this on her blog awhile back, and I thought it was amazing and put it in my journal. 

“Being generically perfect isn't beautiful. Thighs and necks and skin and (heaven forbid) ears have nothing to do with beauty. Beauty is in the stories of our faces, the people who have loved us, the people we have loved and do love and will love. Beauty is what we have survived and what we will create. Beauty is stamped into the way our eyes shift when we smile, the things our hands do, the kindness that comes out of our mouths. Beauty is not how the world sees us, but what we take of ourselves and give to the world.” 

Anything I say after that will just sound pathetic and make this fabulous week go fizzle fizzle, so I will say adieu. But ... I do have to admit, I was rooting for Steven to win the prize. Sorry dude. Maybe next week. (That necklace would have looked great on you, but would it have fit over your (nonexistent) quadruple chins?)