Real glamour

Winston Image, Sunnyvale, CA, 2011

I like this photo because, despite its rather glamour-y aesthetic, Winston left in all my scars, hair, tan lines, et al.

It's disheartening to shoot with someone, have them pluck out a good image, and then consequently abuse the clone stamp and liquefy tools until I look like someone else entirely [I make a point NOT to post those on here].

The truth is that most of the models in beauty ads have awkward body hair prickling out somewhere, or else they have belly fat, or else they have asymetrical boobs, or else they have cellulite, or else they have acne, or undereye circles, or chipmunk cheeks, or a short neck. But they're still gorgeous!

So we take these already-stunning girls and gloss them over until they don't even look human.

And then we wonder why "normal" girls have self-esteem issues, and why healthy girls everywhere feel fat and ugly.

Maybe this sounds uncompassionate or hypocritical, coming from someone who manages to make a living off her appearance, but I genuinely think the route to beauty isn't in make-up or plastic surgery. The answer is getting some goddamn exercise, smiling a lot, and learning to love your idiosyncracies.

Confidence, health, and self-respect is sexy, no matter how big your nose is or what your nipples look like or whatever. Especially since, ultimately, we're all going to get soggy and old--which is why we should be cultivating those traits that will LAST our whole lives [i.e., confidence, health, and self-respect], instead of focusing on superficial transient details.

Fuck your underbite--someone thinks it's cute. Forget your small tits--in twenty years all your girlfriends with big tits will be envious of how yours manage to not be these huge cumbersome back-injuring sandbag things. It's all so subjective--the most successful fashion models tend to be girls you would think looked like aliens if they weren't fashion models.

Whatever you look like, there is nothing as unsexy as, "Ah, god, am I getting fat? Do I have crappy hair?" Shut up! Go do something fun and stop thinking the whole world is looking at you, dammit!

And if the whole world IS looking at you, it's probably because you're nice to look at. That or someone drew a cock on your face with a permanent marker while you were asleep.