Now I’m Living It

I started out selling cosmetics and modeling for the same company, and my daughter wanted to follow in my footsteps. She was told that in order to succeed she would have to lose weight. So she became a size 4, and that still wasn’t thin enough. She was in and out of therapy for years over self-image issues. At night I was afraid to go to sleep for fear that she might not be there the next morning. The same feelings of being unattractive and unwanted were picked up and felt by my daughter. She experienced pain to such a degree that she was considering ending her life! Here is a gifted woman who is today is an incredible teacher -- very bright and intelligent yet at one time harmfully distraught in trying to live up to someone else’s illusion of beauty. It is staggering to realize the need to conform can be so fatal to self-esteem – and maybe one’s life!