Glossy.

Dear Parents of Daughters:

I wore overalls and cargo pants. I was awkward and ill-fitting. I had kindergarten clips in my hair and I hid behind glasses that I hoped would hide my bushy eyebrows and uneven smile. I laughed too loud and thought that was wrong. I was gangly and weird and not like all the petite girls I was growing up around. I did not ever imagine I would grow out of that stage, I thought that stage was just...me.

Gangly.

Then Vogue happened and later, Bazaar.

Placed in front of me was something I did not understand but I wanted to know more. They transformed me, and they still do. 

It makes me disheartened when I read/hear people say, "Don't let your daughters look at fashion magazines." I don't think anyone should just look, but rather they should read. Let her read fashion magazines. Let her open Vogue and know what it feels like to open a new world. A world with stories and dreams. A world without duckfaces or instagram filters, without implants or raccoon eyes.... a world that she can learn that there is more to life than whatever she might thing is reality. 

I almost had forgotten the joy I have always felt when opening up a big, glossy issue and falling into its articles until my Bazaar's Fall Fashion Issue arrived. I reverted back to 15. Back to my teens when I went from awkward to Ford Model and learned I wasn't weird, I was just in the wrong reality.... my world needed to be bigger and I started to emulate the models I saw and because of them I learned how to do my hair and my makeup... and even find jeans that fit. And I went from an awkward Sophomore to a model. Even just for a little bit, it was what I needed to see that I maybe 'weird' to small town mentally limited peons, but to Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, and Milan.... I was in demand.

From this....

To this.

So please, let her read Vogue, let her fall into Bazaar, let her dream.... for she maybe, just maybe will find herself. Let her go beyond the pictures and see the world that is: Fashion.  

(And if you raise her right.... she still will have all this weirdness going on even when she's pushing 30: