I hope everyone had a great weekend last weekend! As you all may know, the PG-13 screening of America the Beautiful was last Thursday night at Studio Movie Grill with a fabulous red carpet arrival. I know it was hard to make it all the way up to Roswell, but we had a great showing of women & girls. The place was packed! We did mini make-overs in the lobby before the movie, which were a big hit & got to create a relationship with Remuda Ranch, one of the leading eating disorder facilities in the U.S.
I am especially thrilled to say we had some notable ladies attend the movie screening. Miss America 2008, Kristen Haglund was there as well as Spanglish teen popstar Tyna Q who just received the Horizon Award from Georgia Music Hall of Fame award earlier this month. Both Kristin & Tyna Q are huge supporters of the message of America the Beautiful. When Kristin won the title of Miss America in 2008, her platform issue was raising awareness of eating disorders. This continues to be a big part of her life. Kristen actually even has a foundation soley dedicated to helping girls & women with eating disorders find hope, networking & financial aid.
Tyna Q was very vocal at the post movie panel discussion about refusing to conform to the unrealistic standard of beauty in America. I applaud both of them & am so happy I got to meet these girls. Also Zooey, another teen popstar who was at the movie screening, was right there with Tyna Q about being adamantly opposed to America’s unrealistic standard of beauty. I actually met Tyna Q when I was on CBS Better Mornings back in January when I talked about Authentic Beauty & our Image Journey for starting the New Year. Additionally, Sheri Adair from Best Self Magazine attended as well. The man of the hour, Darryl Roberts, is simply fascinating. I absolutely loved hearing him speak to all the women & girls at the screening. It was just so powerful for me to hear a man (!) say so much about the completely unrealistic standard of beauty here in America. I mean yes, he was the one who wrote the screenplay, but still it just gives me chills each & every time I not only see the movie, but hear Darryl speak.
Regarding the post movie discussion panel, there were two psychiatrists there as well who gave their two cents on the phenomenon of this out of touch, absurd standard of beauty. But the whole discussion was so lively & animated. There were many teens in the audience who shared their experiences with their peers & adults relating to the ideal “beautiful” look. My daughter, Quinn & her friends were there, so that was very special for me. I am looking forward to doing a screening of America the Beautiful somewhere intown in the next few months. I will keep everyone up to date on details for that.
I also wanted to touch on the Cure Childhood Cancer’s “A Tribute to the Quiet Heroes” event I attended on Saturday. As I told you on the last blog, the event pays tribute to the strength and courage of the mothers of children with cancer. I brought four make-up artists with me who helped me do all the mothers’ make-up. There were a few moms who I recognized from Bert’s Big Adventure; they actually waited in line so that I could do their make-up. We all chatted & they were so sweet & thankful, but c’mon people these women are truly, truly amazing. I mean wow. They have an incredible strength within themselves as each day they wake up & their child, their baby, their everything, has cancer. Ugh that is just so heartbreaking. The speaker at the luncheon was a woman named Nancy Keene. She has written or co-authored many books for families of children with cancer as well as edited two books on childhood cancer & many other topics including childhood brain & spinal cord tumors. I just look up to Nancy so much; she is so strong for these women. And most of these women have never known her or met her, but flipped through her guide multiple times to read her advice. Nancy is a tireless advocate for children’s health issues, including pediatric clinical trials, childhood cancer, late effects of childhood cancer treatments, pediatric pain relief, and emotional support for families. She frequently speaks for professional and parent groups and works with national pediatric advocacy organizations and committees. In addition, she has participated on national online support groups since they began in 1996.
Even though all that binds the women who attended the luncheon together is the fact that their children have cancer, they were all friends. There was so much camaraderie in the room, it was mind-blowing. Again in the wake of such a horrible time for them, these women were able to make friends with each other & be each other’s rock. I think that is very important for them to have that built in support system. As a matter of fact, I think every woman should have a strong support system! I am in talks right now with the group about during future events with the group & I have invited them to the next Champagne & Shadows! I want to thank Chris Glavine from the bottom of my heart as well as Kristin Conner, the executive director of Cure Childhood Cancer for allowing me to be a part of this fantastic event for the second year in a row.
The Atlanta Girl Expo has been moved to March 2011 now, so I’ll keep you up-to-date about what happens there. But come see me & schedule an appointment soon! FYI the first Fall Trends Group Class is next week on October 7. We will be demonstrating the looks and offering an interactive dialogue about Fall Fashion and how to achieve makeup looks to complement the season’s current trends. The cost of the class is $25, which can be applied to a one-on-one lesson with any Authentic Beauty Artist. The date after next week’s class is October 27th. Also stay tuned for the final blog on Authentic Beauty’s fall looks next week. We have had three blogs showing three of the looks so far, or pick up a copy of Jezebel Magazine where the looks are featured on page 128.
