I never really got very involved with the Hollywood scene, nor do I read a lot of celebrity gossip because I truly think that most of Hollywood is self-absorbed and narcissistic.  I have better things to do with my time than to allow an artificial world with artificial values rule my life. However, when the headlines about Jennifer Love Hewitt hit the cover of People Magazine I had to read it and give my take on this issue.

I looked at the pictures and my first thoughts were, “Jennifer you look great. You are a curvy girl who is adorable and looks like a woman, not like a skinny little girl like most of the women in Hollywood do”.   Then I read the article. She was very candid about her life.  It seems what happened to her happens to a lot of women. She grew up skinny and then as she passed puberty her body began to change and she actually began to get curvier and look like most of us do. In fact, the picture from the back looked just like ME, only I would never wear a black bikini.  I’d be wearing the brightest colored bikini I could find, so they really could have pulled my body apart. Hollywood would probably label me as a WHALE because I am a stunning, fit and fabulous size 12.  To those babes in Hollywood I would be larger than life.  And you know what? THAT IS FINE WITH ME.

Jennifer and I actually have many things in common.  First we both love our bodies and second we do not care what other people think.  I learned that lesson many years ago. People will say things about you whether you look good or look bad - so who cares?  Even at night when I take off my clothes and stand there naked I love my body.  Well, most nights anyway. In fact, I even had very few issues with my body image growing up as an overweight young woman.  I was more worried about my health and breathing problems than how fat I looked.

What I also liked about the article is that she is not apologizing to anyone or saying she needs to lose weight.  She is fine with herself just as she is. YOU GO GIRL.  She actually showed Hollywood where they can go when she signed a Hanes contract to show her body in underwear. Hey I want to do that!

The article also shows other women in Hollywood who had put on weight and have since have taken it off. Tyra Banks was one of the women who they dissed for gaining some weight and she still looked great. Tyra is very vocal about this issue and so am I. I have been telling women for years that we are all not gonna be a size 2.  That’s unrealistic, unachievable and attainable for most of us and yet some women still do not get that. 

For most women once you hit 30 your body will start to change. I remember my body changing about age 33 and it still is all the time. As you get older you need fight a little harder to stay healthy and feel good about yourself, but it can be done. Working out and good nutrition is the way to go. I am over 50 and feel great and I am thankful that my body can move the way it does. I want women to know that people like Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, and Delta Burke are the real women who look like women.

If you are not happy with the way you look then change it.  But be realistic about it. Stop comparing yourself to others and work on what you can do to feel and look better about yourself. I would venture to guess that most of the women in Hollywood, including most models have EATING DISORDER AND ISSUES bigger than you or I could ever imagine. Hollywood is not the real world that most of us live in.  Stop celebrity watching if all it does is make you feel inferior.  You are the star of your life.  Work on becoming a better you.  One day at a time.

Debra