from "On Becoming Fearless"

"The first step to becoming fearless about our physical appearance is knowing that our fears of inadequacy are manufactured and mass-marketed. The fear-generating messages of perfection we measure ourselves against come not from Moses on the mountain-top but from the multibillion-dollar cosmetics and fashion industres whos profits are directly tied to our levels of insecurity. ***

"That's only half the story, however. We are, after all, the ones perpetuating the game of comparisons. The urge to compare, to see how we're doing relative to others, is a part of the human condition. But we can enlarge our perspective to dilute the power of our narrow, self-destructive comparisons. I know this is hard, but if we can't completely stop playing the comparison game, we can at least start changing who we compare ourselves to."

-- Aríanna Huffingtòn, "On Becoming Fearless," page 20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

I copied and pasted this from a comment on a link I misplaced. But I like what it says. I'm not sure of the exact quote because of the misspellings, so I think I'll look for the book myself and check it out, but it does seem to reflect what Arianna Huffington might say.

The young women of today, and maybe me included a little bit, are affected by what the outside world says we should be, should look like actually, and that is so wrong.

Rise above it all and be yourself.