Campaign for Beauty....(in our own back yard)

I'm sure most of us have heard about the Dove 'Campaign for Beauty', which is a series of commercials that confront how we as a culture define beauty. The campaign has come to the forefront in the past week or so, in part due to a commercial designed by an ad agency (in Toronto, I believe) that shows the evolution of a models transformation. From stepping into the makeup chair, to the final billboard, complete with a liberal dose of help from photoshop, the commercial shows how little 'natural' beauty has to do with the average advertisement.

As the mother of two daughters, and future women, I am concerned with how they will begin to use the things they see on TV and magazines as a yard stick for their own beauty. Right now, they know that they are incredible, funny, beautiful people who are valued and cherished. Sometime between childhood and young adulthood many of us lose that knowledge, and begin to let others define who we are, and whether or not we are worthy. I hope I will always allow them to see that they are beautiful, inside and out, and that their beauty will come from within and spread out.

In the interest of promoting the Campaign for Real Beauty in my own backyard, I am posting one of my favorite recent photos. This little girl is just an incredible beauty, and I hope when she looks at the photos from her recent session, it will always remind her of how beautiful she is.

We all need a little reminder, some days. :)