It Doesn't Make Sense

MY FOOD AFFECTS MY MOOD!

Having positive self-esteem and feeling confident isn't always easy - there are lots of things that affect the way we feel about ourselves, from experiences to overcoming the pressures to fit in along with achieving the media's expectations of success and beauty.

Something girls often overlook when it comes to self-confidence is our health. Think about it - when you’re feeling physically and mentally well, chances are you feel better about yourself generally. What we eat and our relationship with food plays a big role in this.

Hold on because we're going to do a FUN deep dive into how a balanced diet and mood booster foods can affect and improve our self-confidence and self-esteem!

What is self-esteem and self-confidence?

Having positive self-esteem basically means that you like and accept yourself. If you have low self esteem you may think you aren't 'good enough', that people don't like you or that you need to change yourself. Feeling like this can affect the way you live your life and cause a delay from reaching your best you! Similarly, confidence is all about having belief in your capabilities and not worrying what others think of you. When you don’t feel confident, you may shy away from certain situations or people, which again can hold you back. Body confidence is another aspect to keep in mind - having a poor body image can affect your confidence in other areas. This is an area where diet can play an important role; eating smart and developing a healthy relationship (yes, food can be a positive BFF!) with food can really help improve body confidence.

How does food affect your confidence?

I love research and science! Did you know??? Researchers have found some fascinating links between what we eat and our mental health. When it comes to confidence and self-esteem, making necessary changes to your diet can help reduce stress and anxiety, boost your mood and in turn help you feel more confident. Improving your relationship with food and your relationship with your body can make a big difference! Check out these awesome mood-boosting foods below and add them to your diet ASAP!

While we're on the topic of food, have you ever wondered what other youth eat in different countries? Photographer and author of "Daily Bread: What Kids Eat Around the World, discussed the creation and photo shoot process. It was elaborate and expensive! First, producers in each country recruited children to keep a journal of everything they ate in a week. Then, a team of cooks shopped and recreated the dishes. Segal then arranged all of the food in a studio and took photos of the kids surrounded by a week's worth of their meals. He was most surprised by the similarities of their diets in different countries — lots of "ultra processed and packaged foods" and "empty calories," he told Insider (Digital Magazine) in a statement.

"The children I met have distinct personalities and diverse hobbies, yet they're often eating in eerily similar ways," he said. "Compare the diets of Paulo from Sicily and Isaiah from Los Angeles. In the past, a Sicilian boy would have grown up eating very different foods from his counterpart in the US, but now their diets are converging. Both Paulo and Isaiah eat French fries, burgers, pizza, pasta, and white bread. They live continents apart, but it's as if the boys' parents have been shopping at the same global superstore!"

How interesting is it to see youth from around the world surrounded by what they eat in a week? These photo are amazing and I'm hoping that it gives you inspiration to go all in on adding some super booster foods to your diet. Create a new goal, grab a BFF and together use your inner Girl Power to add another ingredient towards being Girls Above Society - Confident, KIND & Cyber-Smart!

Alexandra and Jessica from Altadena, California, USA. Gregg Segal/powerHouse Books

Left: Paolo Mendlaro, 9, Catania, Sicily; Right: Amelia Gavia, 12, Catania

Anchal Sahani from Chembur, Mumbai, India. Gregg Segal/powerHouse Books

Rosalie Durand from Nice, France. Gregg Segal/powerHouse Books

Greta Moeller from Hamburg, Germany. Gregg Segal/powerHouse Books

Tharkish Sri Ganesh and Mierra Sri Varrsha, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Gregg Segal/powerHouse Books

Makeup VS True Beauty

If you have ever struggled with the pressure to look a certain way in order to fit in or feel good enough, this post is for you. (If I'm honest, this post is for most of us...) In GIRL TALK, speaking events and Girl Power Camps the topic of pressures to be perfect is always a popular conversation. Today's media can be overwhelming when it comes to defining the standard of beauty. I'm here to reveal some big news...There is NO standard or requirement, we are led to believe there is and it's up to us to stop the madness and empower each other to be REAL. A successful professional makeup artist, Sheila Ybarra revealed her thoughts on the power of makeup and beauty standards. This is just too good not to share!

So I’m posting these pictures as a way to get your attention for what I am about to say. As a professional makeup artist I always strive to create art that shows my clients at their very best. I find the best colors, best angles to enhance, I want their makeup to draw out their personality, and I do my best to the bring their vision to life. My clients hire me because they want to look beautiful, lively … but still look like themselves. Don’t get me wrong I do have clients who will actually say “I don’t want to look like myself, paint my face!” I’m very honest about what I can achieve and what I cannot achieve when I am speaking with a client I always maintain a high degree of authenticity.

And so when my client shows me a photo that she pulled up on Pinterest or Instagram that has been overly photo shopped or filtered I do have to explain to this client that that picture has been modified. I am a makeup artist I am not a magician, I cannot make every single pore on your face go away. Don’t get me wrong, I am simultaneously intrigued and troubled by the extensive use of makeup, photoshop, and I have been noticing more people moving towards towards a standard of perfection that is not only unnatural, but frankly impossible! For example the average time I spend on a photo shoot can be between 4 to 8 hours long. So imagine that the model in front of me has spent hours upon hours in makeup application and yet their pictures are still extensively edited before being approved to print. All their facial imperfections are removed, the skin is lightened, the pores on the nose or minimized, there eyes are brightened up, and every now and then we have a client ask the photographer to straighten out the bridge of her nose or even take her braces off in photoshop. Don’t get me wrong I am fascinated by it I even get a chuckle when a girlfriend will Face-tune a group photo of all of us and I get a flashback of what I look like when I was 20 years old!

What I am trying to say is this: what is expected is something not even the most beautiful among us can attain, and trust me I have seen some of the most beautiful women sit in my chair. Yes some of my clients do you have perfect skin but these are very young ladies. Everybody has imperfections. I know we always say that true beauty is within. We say that we just need to “be ourselves.” However, the truth is, we are still a product of our environment, and none of us–whether guy or girl–can escape that subconscious realization that we are not measuring up. I have noticed lately since the lock down ( COVID LOCKDOWN ) the majority of my clients that have come into the studio or very self-conscious. I’m wondering have they spent so much time on social media that they have been comparing themselves to people that they follow? I told a client of mine today that I thought it was a good idea that she start to Unfollow some of the people on social media that did not make her feel good about herself. If you find yourself looking at someone’s social media page and you start questioning whether you measure up, I highly suggest that you hit Unfollow! I always love posting before and after pictures so that women can relate to the woman in the before picture. Because that’s what we all look like! NO we did not wake up looking like the after picture. Try loving on yourself a little bit more and start looking from within and find the things that you love about yourself and start making sure you tell yourself every day why you love YOU! OK my rant is over... Sheila Ybarra