I have this incredibly disappointing theory that the princesses in all our favorite fairy tales were actually not as beautiful as we had once thought.
Firstly, the story always begins in a remote, far away land – and the prince is always in some remote village, with hardly any women around, and if there are any women in the story, its always a wicked ugly witch or dwarves, or giants of some sort. There isn’t really much to compete against for the most beautiful women prize.
Cinderella, had two ugly step sisters, Snow white surrounded by seven grumpy ass dwarves, Belle falling in love with a beast, Jasmine was the only women in Arabia who was allowed to show any skin. No wonder we thought these women were the most incredibly flawless and wonderful creatures – because the competition around them was pretty slim.
However we live in a world today where the beauty of others is blasted in our faces through social media. I personally follow some of the most beautiful models in the world and its intimidating watching their lives. Flawless butts, designer clothing, airbrushed real life skin and there perfectly never been blow dried looking hair flowing like there is a guy with a wind machine constantly three steps in front of them. Its hard to feel beautiful these days when you are exposed to so much of this. Instagram alone allows us an up close and personal gallery of every celebrity and model, literally available at your fingertips, which only makes your life seem bleak because – really – how can you compete. Its getting harder and harder to feel like a princess.
So, faced with all this intense glamour and kale-raw-food-vegan-gluten-free food posts, in the weeks leading up to my wedding, I decided it was time to knuckle down and focus on myself, my body and my beauty. I stopped drinking, changed my diet (which ultimate was not drinking) and I started exercising like a maniac. It was rough, but the sacrifice I had to make to try and gain a glimpse of feeling like a princess on the day.
As the planning progressed and then days got closer, while I started feeling and looking better, I sat down to finalize the guest list & start doing the table seating – and it suddenly dawned on me – ALL MY FRIENDS ARE MODELS.
Not only am I living in a world where we are surrounded by the social media of beautiful people, but I have consciously over the years surrounded myself with incredibly irritatingly perfect looking people. So now, on my wedding day, the one day that I am supposed to feel like the most beautiful women in the room, I realized that I am up against a sea of international models facing back at me. It was an overwhelming feeling. How can I even compete.
But then it dawned on me, why have I never realized or felt this before?
Over the years as a stylist, I have somehow forged an created an incredible network of working and successful models, but it has never overwhelmed me or made me feel less of a person – and the reason is because these models, these icons are all real people living with the same issues and hurdles that most of us girls deal with on a daily basis, and they are actually really genuine and gorgeous on the inside too. I know them as friends before beauty and I have the rare inside look at the real world behind the glamourous lives of being a model. And while the perks are obvious, the downfall can sometimes be brutal, and it makes these wonderful women as real as the rest of us.
So I decide to exploit the fact that I have a sea of my very own Barbie dolls at my finger tips and I want to play with the idea of delving and showcasing their real lives, their fears, their hurdles and the tricks of the trade. Opening up peoples minds into the world behind the camera and what you see on the red carpet. What they go through and deal with day to day, and teaching you guys that you should never feel intimidated or question the worth of your lifestyle because you think they have it better. Empowering women to understand each other and to embrace the different beauty we have. We need to be able to teach and to learn from each other. To inspire the better for all. I mean – after all we are all on the same team.
This is a collaboration of health, lifestyle, beauty and fashion with a group of my friends, who just so happen to all be models.