I'm a little bit famous, if you haven't heard.

Original Post by BYU Women's Services Blog {{{HERE}}}

I recently did a photo shoot with Brooke Schultz for this campaign that BYU Women's Services is leading called "I am Beautiful Because..." Recapturing Beauty photo series.

I praticipated in their 30 day Body Image Challenge in the Fall of this past year, and thats where I found out about this "Recapturing Beauty" thing they are doing. They're basically just trying to make sure that women and girls everywhere understand what Beauty actually is, instead of trying to conform to some unrealistic expectation that the media and the world throw at us.

They asked people to submit a statement telling "why I am beautiful." I got super pumped all of a sudden, and wrote my statement out in an email to Brooke at WSR. Here is what I wrote out, slightly edited.

I just wanted to take a second to say that I think this is an amazing idea. When I read the blog post yesterday, I really got to thinking, and I ended up sitting there for literally hours trying to identify what it is that makes people beautiful. This year I've been working hard with my own mental state in an attempt to start fixing any issues I have had with depression, my body, my life, and myself. Its been crazy hard, and more difficult than I ever would have imagined. But regardless of all the difficulties and rough times I give myself, I know that I can't admit defeat. So I won't, and I will never. "I am the master of my own destiny," and all of those cheesy, cliched empowerment type of things may get old, but they are true. What am I refusing to surrender to? A lot of things. I refuse to cave under pressures of school and work. I refuse to surrender to what the world tells me is perfection. I refuse to surrender to depression when it hits; to my own self-critiquing and negativity. I refuse to surrender to life when it gets rough. I will never give up. I can't give up. I won't give up. I have come to believe that beauty comes from the strength of your spirit. I am working desperately to make sure mine is strong enough to hold me though anything. I may not quite be there yet, But I fully intend on getting there, and doing it for and by myself. So as I said before, I am beautiful because I refuse to surrender. And I never will.


I went and picked up the CD of photos from Brooke today after class. Here are my favorites. :)
And yes, you can see my pink hairs quite well. Its true.

teehee.... I feel purdy.