The Challenge

I have to be honest with you all. I hate the way my nose gets red sometimes and how the veins on my eyelids become darker when I’m tired. I cover up my face because my skin tone can get uneven, and I coat the mascara because my eyelashes aren't thick, aren't long, and aren't perfect. I'm guilty of wishing that I was prettier.

However, something has really been eating away at me. Ever since I saw the Aerie lingerie campaign (go look at it, it’s pretty cool), I kept thinking about how fearless those people were by showing off their cellulite, stretch marks, and even tummy rolls… they embraced their flaws and looked, dare I say it, happy. Then came the moment I stared at a picture I’d posted (above) -- a moment of pure bliss -- and all I could see was the fact that I was wearing no make up... and wondered if people would notice the same thing. And that’s when I became disgusted. Hobey-ho, so here we go. Cora and I talked about this same thing and came up with a solution that may be temporary and certainly isn’t perfect, but it may just give us the right to take back the mirror. We’re calling it the Audrey Hepburn month, and it involves a lot of loving your all-natural, God-given, freaking-beautiful body. 30 days with no make up. We invite you to join us. Now, we understand that those who join us may not be able to go all-natural 24/7 --afterall, we are women who will stand beside you at the events that require lipstick and heels. That's really not what this is about. This is about taking back the mirror on the days that we don't have to get dressed up and, most importantly, feeling just as free and happy about it as we do when we slip into our pajamas. Our real faces should be our comfort zones.  

We know Audrey Hepburn wore make-up. We know that she rocked heels, pearls, and the all-too-fabulous dresses... But we also know that she was so much more than those things. This was deemed the Audrey Hepburn month because she represents a sense of empowerment and pride we are all searching to find.

Today we commit to loving our blemishes, our veins, our scrapes, and our shadows. We are real. We are painstakingly original, and that must be the most beautiful thing about us.