Three days before my husband and I were scheduled to go on a short jaunt to the Caribbean, I realized I had no bathing suit. Or, more accurately, I had a drawer full of swimsuits I could not wear in three days.

I had given birth to my second daughter less than a year prior—my belly button was still in recovery from being turned inside out. Twice. Also, I sustained an umbilical hernia and diastasis, or muscle separation, down my entire abdomen. Despite the fact that I was back down to my normal weight, things just hadn’t quite assumed their regular positions yet . So no, I had no swimsuits to wear when the swimsuits in consideration were all bikinis I bought on my honeymoon twelve years ago. (When I weighed eight pounds and had the energy to work out like a maniac bride on one of those reality shows.)

But I digress.

I had to go swimsuit shopping. And what’s worse than going swimsuit shopping? Going swimsuit shopping with your six year-old daughter.

It was a Sunday. There was no babysitter available. She wanted to come with. I couldn’t say no. To prepare, I skipped breakfast and put on a thong. Julia packed a few stuffed animals. Something about my daughter you should know: her stuffed animals talk. They have very rich lives, in fact, and have a lot to say. “Chicky” the gossipy little duck, and “Cotton Tail,” a more diminutive rabbit, were coming along for the ride.

God help me. Read more

I’d like to introduce you to the most clever, heartfelt and elevating non-profit I’ve ever encountered: Smart Girls at the Party. Founded by the lovely and brilliant Amy Poehler, Smart Girls is ambitious: it’s a social movement, it’s a community, it’s a public service, it’s a media channel—and so much more. At heart, though, it’s dedicated to girls. Educating them. Introducing them to “smart girls” around the world. Opening their eyes. Empowering them.

The organization’s motto is “change the world by being yourself.” It aims to help girls’ discover what moves them by offering a colorful wealth of information—on inspiring women, on different cultures, on raising a voice for girls around the world.  Peohler’s Smart Girls reveals a dynamic world filled with rock star women. It’s inspiring and fun to watch no matter how old you are.

I love the energy of this organization and their very unique messaging. I was particularly inspired by this statement: “We change the world by being ourselves and being ourselves is a life-long quest.” 

You could spend hours watching videos and reading the fun segments on the Smart Girls website. And I encourage you to! But here is a shortcut to a few of my favorite sections:

Smart Girls at the Party: Poehler’s video series that celebrates “women who are changing the world by being themselves.”  Poehler sits down with great women across all ages and industries. Think writers, artists, politicians, doctors—all with Poehler’s signature humor and flare.

Operation Nice: another interview series that celebrates random acts of kindness, small and large.

Notes to My Twelve Year-Old Self: advice— funny, true and heartfelt.

Call to Action#BringBackOurGirls, a joint initiative with Girl Rising, in response to the recently abducted Nigerian school girls.

 

03 .20 .14 Every Mother Counts

Part of my mission with BeautyMama is to bring awareness to organizations that benefit women and children around the world. Sometimes, I really believe that world peace, hunger, opposition and religious and spiritual freedom could all be achieved if women everywhere were safe and healthy, enabled and educated to be bold and beautiful, inside and out.

The magnificent Christy Turlington-Burns founded Every Mother Counts to raise the standards of global maternal health. This fact makes me shiver: every day, in fact every 90 seconds, a mother dies from childbirth complications that can be prevented.

Please join me in supporting Every Mother Counts any way you can. Here is a link to their donation page. Also, the non-profit has partnered with Minted, Jennifer Fisher jewelry, Tracey Anderson: The Pregnancy Project, Oiselle clothing (I own the t-shirts), ErgoBaby and Roberta Freyman on exclusive products. Proceeds from sales help educate and support women to reduce the maternal mortality rate worldwide.

Calculation

  • Time it takes to get a Brazilian bikini wax, including transit time: 60 minutes.
  • Time spent thinking about need for Brazilian bikini wax over the past 2 weeks: approx. 7 minutes/day: 96 minutes. And counting.
  • Time required to make phone call and book said Brazilian bikini wax: 2 minutes, tops.
  • Time experiencing intense discomfort during Brazilian bikini wax: 10 minutes.
  • Time feeling unbridled joy over smooth bikini area after Brazilian bikini wax: until regrowth appears, approx. 2.5 weeks, or 25,025 minutes.
  • Time wasted, including imposed, deferred joy: approx. 1200 minutes, or, just over one week.
  • Time it takes to cook homemade meals and read The New York Times cover to cover for one week: way less than 1200 minutes.

Maybe I’m not so good at math after all.

Pssst: Leana and Erica at Kimara Ahnert in New York City just might be the best waxers of all time.

A new study reveals that women feel least attractive between the hours of 7a.m. and 12p.m., making us more susceptible to marketing and advertising that promises to give a boost to our beauty.

The study also showed that we feel ugliest on Mondays and most attractive on Thursdays. Also, there’s a short, sacred window between 12pm-3pm when we feel our best-looking.

I don’t know about you, but this all sounds about right to me. I certainly do not feel comfortable putting my face first in the early morning. For me, that’s any time before 11am. I have never, ever been a morning person. Even after a good night’s sleep. Apparently, beauty companies are using this information to calculate their marketing and advertising strategies toward women. Idea being, the worse we feel about our appearance, the more vulnerable we are to making a purchase through “encouraging” beauty marketing. (Noted. Because I’d probably buy anything anyone convincing tried to sell me that promised to banish my “morning face.”) On the flip side, when we feel our best, say on Thursday at 1p.m., marketers will appeal to us in a different way, with “empowering “advertising hooks.

Bottom line, beware of impulsive cosmetic purchases before noon and ahead of the weekend. (And know you’re not alone feeling ugly at morning drop-off.)

You’re welcome.

The Big Apple recently became the first city ever to make the self esteem of young girls an official initiative. In a striking ad campaign across the city, on the sides of buses and in subway stations, NYC’s “I’m a Girl” campaign tells young girls they are smart, funny, curious, and beautiful just the way they are. Featuring 21 of the city’s lovely and diverse girls ages 7-12, the ads show a spectrum of races, body types and shapes, in the hope that spotlighting real girls in the media will help real girls feel good about themselves.

I love the idea of this campaign. I do believe the media plays a role in the evolution of a young girl’s self confidence. After all, the media can factor into our own sense of self if we let it. And as we all know, the self-esteem of a young girl is everything. It is the seed from which her belief system grows: what she believe she deserves, what she believes she can achieve. Or wear. Or eat. Or love.  I commend the city for this love letter to girls.

“I’m a Girl” got me thinking about my own first grader’s self confidence. Julia’s Dad and I try to be thoughtful about the messages we send about her mind and body. We tell her how clever she is when she makes up a new joke, how smart she is when she applies what she learns. We praise her strong body for learning how to do the monkey bars, after weeks of blisters and falls. We acknowledge how hard she works in school and how kind she is to people way more than we praise her looks. I think, right now, Julia believes she can do whatever she sets her mind to if she works hard enough.

But so help me, every day I set her out into the world I wonder what forces, what tiny details might be tugging at the steely fabric of my precious girl.  Read more