Monday, April 26, 2010

Today we broke the MYTH about Beauty....

Week 6

This week was probably our most AMAZING week thus far!!!! The theme of the week was BEAUTY!  Half of the girls along with, Theresa and Alyson met at the East Hampton Middle School for their annual Wellness Fair. We had a table along with organizations like the Wellness Foundation, East Hampton Ocean Rescue, various physicians and dentists, the ECCO farm, Southampon Hosipital, the YMCA etc...  We were there to tell anybody and everyone about our journey.  We had a photo slide show, examples of positive affirmations, and some giveaways from Cardio Coach, our corporate sponsor. Cardio Coach offers "downloadable audio workouts" to be used on any cardio machine. They have provided us with t-shirts and mp3 players for all the girls. These mp3 players came preloaded with a workout for the girls. The i-tri girls will be working with Cardio Coach to help develop a Cardio Kids program! We spoke with students, teachers and parents about every aspect of our program. People were very interested in what we are doing listened to what we had to say. We are a part of something BIG!!! It was very good practice in public speaking


During our classroom workshop we debunked the myths about BEAUTY....We are force fed images of what is beautiful everyday in all forms of media. It can really drive us mad -  trying to compete with these images and thinking we need to look like these models in order to be considered beautiful. Truth is, these models do not even look like what we see in magazines and on TV.  The girls were given popular magazines and asked to choose an image of a women they thought was beautiful. Then they had to share why they chose that  particular woman. Answers varied; her eyes, hair or long legs. The girls were then shown a video from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty called EVOLUTION .  This short film showed the process it takes to make a model into the MODEL you see in magazines, on tv or on billboards. It shows the makeup application, hair styling and photographing. However the transformation does not stop there. The film then goes to show how the photos are digitally enhanced to make the models eyes bigger, her neck longer, hair more voluminous and cheeks thinner. No wonder we have a distorted image of beauty in this country. This led to a discussion about what the girls thought of the model. Many of them thought she looked strange when it was all said and done. She did not, they said, look like herself. We all know there are so many pressures to look and act a certain way. But the truth is we are ALL beautiful and we just need to recognize and feel it!

After we discussed this, the girls were asked to pick a physical feature they love about THEMSELVES and write it on an index card. They also chose their favorite character trait to add to the card. We then spoke about how many of the features the girls chose, were THE SAME features they loved about the models! We all have beautiful traits! Finally, Theresa had found these geodes a while back. They look like ordinary rocks, gray and dingy on the outside. However, when we cracked them open with a hammer, they were beautiful crystals on the inside! JUST like us!!!!!



After school we revisited B East . Two dear friends of Theresa's taught us Bellydancing. Shona Gawronski and Kate Topliff were amazing. Watching them dance was incredible. They were graceful and poised. They completely embodid what it means to be feminine.  When we arrived at the studio, they had jingly skirts waiting for us! They were so pretty. We all felt beautiful. Oh by way, Theresa and Alyson did our makeup before we left. We all got dramatic eye makeup. Very theatrical! Shona and Kate broke down one of their favorite dances and taught us how to do each part of the dance. They taught us to just listen to the music and to our bodies. By the end of class we all did the whole dance, twice!!!! We left there feeling so beautiful and feminine!!!! Thanks Shona & Kate!!!!









 


Thursday night we had a health fair at our school. We were able to finally share our experiences with everyone we go to school with and their families. Thanks for all of the support!


Saturday we were back at the YMCA for more training. We finaly got in a running workout. In fact we used the MP3 players given to us by Cardio Coach.  We had such a good time. It was a challenging workout. Sean O'Malley, Cardio Coach himself, led us up a fog filled mountain and over hills. He helped us the whole way with encouraging words and peaceful music. When we finished we felt we really accomplished something. We look forward to helping Sean and the Cardio Coach team develop and test a Cardio Kids version of the workouts. We are so excited to share our thoughts with them. Thank you Cardio Coach for all of your support!



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