First, I’ll tell you about a mistake I made.
I was so excited to see a “kind of” regular sized woman on the TODAY show talking about being a Calvin Klein model that I raced to my computer and posted “I LOVE THIS” on my Facebook page. And I do. I love that 27 year old Myla Dalbesio from Wisconson is fresh and cute and “hot”, talking about being a Calvin Klein model on the TODAY Show, and that she has just a little bit of meat on her bones.
But I can tell you that every woman who looked at her said, “Really?”
Once I got over the initial excitement and started to think about it…at 5’10” Myla isn’t rail thin, but not exactly curvy either. I would kill to have her body.
Why does it matter?
How many of you women have looked at your picture on Facebook or Instagram or whatever and thought “I’m fat”? Compared to what? You are only “fat” compared to the models and actresses on every fashion and entertainment website. Would you be “fat” if you didn’t have them to compare yourself to?
You are what you think.
It’s very similar to this.
I’m often asked if, as a woman, it was hard for me to climb the ladder in television news and have some success.
Yes, it was hard, but it didn’t have anything to do with being a woman. Like a lot of other businesses, it’s tough; for anybody.
My parents made plenty of mistakes when I was growing up (we all do) but I think they did get one thing in particular right.
My Dad especially, never made any reference at all to anything being better or worse or more difficult or easier for me because I was a girl. We never talked about me being a girl, and how that would make a difference in anything I tried to do. He told my brother and me the same thing, “You can do anything you want, if you work hard enough”.
So I grew up just assuming I was entitled to the same job, same pay, same everything, as any man I worked with.
You are what you think.
And that’s why the Calvin Klein ad matters.
27 year old Myla Dalbesio may not be the average woman but she’s a little bit different. And she opens the door for other women, who are bigger or smaller or fatter or thinner or darker or lighter.
There is no woman who is the “right” kind of woman. And the sooner we get that out of our media and out of our heads the sooner every little girl and young woman out there can quit comparing herself, and be free to be herself, and know her value in that.
You are what you think.
The Calvin Klein ad won’t change that. But it’s a step in the right direction.
I think it is important that parents let their children know, regardless of his/her gender, that they can aspire to achieve whatever goal, careers, etc., they want in life no matter what. I hate that young girls,or any girls for that matter,think they have to look like the girls on the cover of magazines to be pretty or to fit in at school, and the confidence/self-esteem a young girl or guy gets growing up from nurturiing parents is an important step. Jane, you are a great role model for others and from the looks of it, your parents were great role models too.
Could not agree more Kim, thanks for commenting!