This week, six phenomenal women gathered in Los Angeles for a photo shoot. Not exactly groundbreaking news, until you consider what type of photo shoot it was. The group included a firefighter, a sculptor, a violinist, a cowgirl/ranch manager, a triathlete and an entrepreneur. I found and interviewed all six of them for an upcoming story in Fitness magazine, tentatively called “I love my [blank.]” Each woman has a special part of her body that fills her with pride, that reminds her of who she is, what she wants out of life, of her past triumphs and future goals. I’m keeping their favorite assets a secret until the story runs late this year, but I’ll give you a hint: Some shredded abs, massive lats, sculpted shoulders, juicy booty, dirty hands and a wild scar were all on display.
One of the women spoke to me post-shoot about the incredibly inspiring environment on-set, calling it one of the most empowering experiences of her life. “We all bonded with one another instantaneously. Everyone was humble about being selected, the women were strong and beautiful in their own way. We felt like movie stars, but were being recognized for being real women.”
In the process of researching the story, I interviewed dozens of women before my editors narrowed the field down to the final six. Among the fantastically inspiring women I spoke with:
-A ballet dancer with unsightly bunions and hammertoes, painful corns, monster cramps, fungal toenails and heel bursitis “that feels like someone sticking you with a hot poker,” who continues to pirouette on pointe because “I’m fulfilling a childhood dream.”
-A 6’3” author who was once half of America’s tallest couple (he was 7’2”) and isn’t afraid to rock high heels.
-One of the women who posed in the famous Dove campaign ad in nothing but her undies.
-A young woman with a giant scar snaking across her chest, a permanent reminder of heart disease diagnosed at age 23 and the internal defibrillator which will forever live inside her chest.
-A 42-year-old woman with a flower tattoo on the inside of her left ankle, an area where she used to self-injure when she was struggling with an eating disorder,depression and anxiety.
-An African-American model with a faceful of freckles who spotted her first dot at age 4, foreshadowing hundreds more to come. Kids called her “Freckle juice” – or people would accuse her that “Black people don’t get freckles.” But in high school, while travelling to NY with her family (her mom has freckles, too), strangers approached her on the street and complimented her on her beautiful marks. “At first, didn’t believe it – I had never heard that before. But I started to realize, ‘My freckles are beautiful and, in turn, I am beautiful, too.’” The 24-year-old is currently starring in Smirnoff and Coca Cola ad campaigns, both of which highlight her freckles; last year, she was chosen out of thousands to star in a Walmart-sponsored travelling African-American history exhibit. When she showed up for the shoot, the Walmart executive who had picked her was on set. She had freckles.
-A redhead who told me “red heads are typically cast in most movies/sitcoms as the ugly/fat/not popular/dorky person. But, in real life, it makes me feel like I am different, in a good way. For most red heads, our hair IS our identity. Q: ‘How would you describe yourself?’ A: ‘I’m a red head.’ Enough said. I have access to a fabulous little community of stranger Gingers who accept, appreciate and love each other. We’ve been called the same terrible names, grew up only being complimented by old ladies. But when two redheads pass each other on the street, we’ll make eye contact and nod our heads with a smile. We get it.”
-A 40-year-old woman who received the nickname Big Nose in sixth grade, bestowing upon her a sense of shame and embarrassment when gazing in the mirror. She would do whatever she could to avoid being seen in profile: “My hands fluttered constantly near my face, and I was forever pulling my hair down over my cheeks as a veil. I would have sold my soul to change my nose. To my young, insecure mind, if my nose were smaller, everything would fall into place.” As she matured, though, she slowly relaxed into her nose. (“Sometimes,” she admits, “when I was feeling dramatic and confident and having a Diana Vreeland moment, I even liked it.”) But for the most part, her thinking was: “I’m smart and funny and maybe sort of pretty, or at least, I might be sorta pretty, if it weren’t for the nose.” And then she’d beat herself up for obsessing because “cool girls don’t care about tiny little cheerleader noses. Cool girls are proud to be all jolie laide. It’s not bad-ass to care about looking pretty.”
The turning point came five years ago, when she became pregnant with her daughter. “I wanted my daughter to be the sort of woman who would love her looks, no matter how unconventional they may be. But would I be able to walk that talk? I had to accept my own unique beauty so I could set a strong example for her. If my daughter had a unique nose, I would still love her, without question. So why not myself?”
Leslie Goldman is a women’s health writer whose work regularly appears in O: The Oprah Magazine, Women’s Health, SELF, Runner’s World, Natural Health, espnW.com and more. A seasoned body image expert, she wrote Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image, and Re-imagining the ‘Perfect’ Body. (Da Capo). Follower her on Twitter @LeslieGoldman and check out her blog, www.healthbreaksloose.com 
