Welcome to the so-called Glamorous life....
I shared with you over the last couple of posts that my daughters were both having landmark birthdays as they turned 10 & 12. And for months they had said that they didn't want to do the birthday party thing...
And then, the week of Oni's birthday- she decided that she perhaps DID want to do a party... but what do you do for a party for a middle school-er? {on a week's notice}....
I was short on time and a bit short on resources on such short notice. Everything I came up seemed too little girl to the 6th grader who has been thrown in the deep end of the social pool at school.... there is so much going on now for her and so much "stuff" to navigate.
This is one of those years where the kids (both boys and girls) are all starting to worry about
EVERYTHING... are they enough of "this" or "that".... too much of "this" or "that"..... So & so "said/did/heard this"... and the "did you hear??????" train that they will be riding all the way through the next decade.
There is just so much pressure to be amazing. It seems a daunting task to teach them all the life skills they are going to need- and get their homework done, sports practiced, games and concerts played... and the occasional shot of confidence to remind them just how truly beautiful and amazing they are.
I have noticed with much more interest lately, just how acutely many girls (who will grow into women someday....) feel like they aren't __________ enough.... you know- the tall girls want to be shorter, the curly girls want to be straight haired, the blue eyed girls want the rich dark eyes, the thick girls want to be thin and thin girls wish they had curves.... all wanting to attain that false perception of perfection that we are bombarded with in the media.... EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.
I'm sure many of you have seen this video link- but I belive it bears a repeat... we need to show our daughters {& our sons for that matter}....
Our impressionable youth need to see that takes a SWARM of professionals to make these models look they way they do. It's easy to look "perfect" with someone else doing your hair and make-up, a photographer who knows how to show off your best angles and editors who have ridiculously powerful editing software at their disposal. Many of these models don't frequently wear make-up and don't even look like their "perfect" personas in the everyday.
We decided to to a little girly- spa/get pretty -get- together and get our "glam" on.... and that sprialed into a beauty session, that moved into a bit of let's pretend... and all of that elevated to
"Get your Glam-o-rama- on" and have a cover model photoshoot, complete with hair and make-up and time under the studio lights with me- and as their "treat bag" I would design a mock magazine cover to high light the best photo of each girl.....
To which Gabbi said, "ME TOO!!!!"
So..... I did this not once, but twice in 7 days..... u h-hemmmm... I should most definately say WE did it twice in 7 days because I absolutely could.not.have.done.this... without some of the MOST amazing and talented group of girlfriends who were only too happy to channel their inner middle schooler and come and play with me, and my girls and a gaggle of their friends.
And while I'm on the subject of SLEEP-overs.... yeah- no sleep.... at all. Seriously. But so glad that both parties had so much fun. The girls got to see first hand how it all works- and they were able to see the steps it takes to make perfect, wonderful, everyday girls- just like them into stars on the cover of a magazine....
It was good stuff to see them walk a little taller than they walked in my door.
