"A Problem Page For All!"

It took me years, but I've learnt to love my curves. I suppose that, by common standards, I'm "overweight," but I know that I'm very healthy and I don't worry about what other people think (well, I try very hard and succeed to a certain degree in not worrying about what other people think). I'm beautiful. I know that. And when I forget it, I have four people who I live with to confirm it, and friends who will tell it to me, and I chant it like a mantra to myself. I am beautiful. Elizabeth Grace Rose Alexandra Mary Catherine Ella Dena Bouma Holtrop is a beautiful human being. It could be that I'm so egotistical that I can't help but admire myself (as Lord Goring says in Oscar Wilde's Ideal Husband, loving oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance); it could be that I managed to snare myself a really healthy self-esteem when they were being handed out. Who knows.

I'm 5'6" tall and I weigh 170 pounds (I dropped a few after I started eating 100% organic foods). I have four and a half feet of hair and an infectious smile. So I have a lot of fat on my stomach and my thighs are large. Who cares? I don't. Sometimes I get a pang, in dance class or at the beach, when I'm presented with skinny long-limbed people in leotards or bathing suits. But, you know, it's the super-thin, supposedly "beautiful" people who are anorexic. Everybody has body issues, even those who fit the cultural standards of beauty. Princess Diana had bullemia. I read somewhere that Julia Roberts suffers from eating disorder issues. Is skin-and-bones beauty really worth it?

It's character that gives a person real beauty. It's a trite saying, but I believe in the aphorism that "beauty comes from within." Shine your light, woman, and you'll glow, pulse -- and holy cow, the world won't be able to take its eyes off you!

This rant brought to you by Elizabeth.

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