Regardless of what people express about your person in front of you or away, it’s not the deciding factor in determining your self-worth.

It’s what you privately think about yourself that really matters.

When it comes to how many women view themselves when they look in the mirror, it continues to amaze how many use destructive lenses for sun glasses.

“Self-esteem comes from who you have in your life. How you were raised. What you struggled with as a child.”…. Halle Berry

 If you have suffered from body issues, which are sometimes self-induced,  especially since countless truly find you more attractive than you find yourself, the question becomes what are you going to do about it?

Emily Nolan is a beautiful woman.

Emily Nolan is an erotic woman.

So often beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for years Emily did not behold her own beauty that was always there.

She took steps to change that and her story is very inspirational.

An effective public speaker, Emily initiates our mutual journey by relating her story at her informative and enjoyable site mykindoflife.com. She shares “Emily Nolan is the author of My Kind of Life.com. She’s also a model and the founder of TOPLESS yoga. #TOPLESSbyemily is a bras on, bellies out self-confidence event used as a tool for self-love. This event is about exposing vulnerabilities by practicing radical self-acceptance.

Topless Yoga is a bras on, bellies out self-confidence event for men and women.

They invite you to practice feeling courageous in your own skin, and don’t worry, taking your shirt off to practice yoga is completely optional. You’ll hear a moving story on body image from Emily Nolan and get a contagious dose of courage and fearlessness while practicing with a world renowned yoga instructor.

It’s open to all levels.

Nolan’s effort to share what is real and authentic in media was the catalyst for the #HealthyBellySelfie social media project contributing to the global conversation around body image.

Emily publicly speaks about her journey through 10 years of disordered eating, plastic surgery, body dysmorphic disorder and shame. She believes that honesty in conversation can spark individual transformation.”

When Emily talks the talk, she also walks the walk, and actually follows through.

As of this writing there are two online videos that help us understand her world and other women that have struggled with their body image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QWSuwJKoXY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPhGtN5nc90

She now speaks in very candid and honest tones. “I’ve modeled at a size 0 and a size 16—I know that happiness doesn’t come from a size, it comes from within. I’ve lived with 10 years of eating disorders and obsessed over fad diets for as long as I could read the cover of a magazine. I’ve struggled with plastic surgery, Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Female Athlete Triad. I thought no one could love me just the way that I was, constantly trying to live my life through media’s expectations of what the perfect woman should look like.

Exhausted, from trying to keep up with the idea that I should look like someone I am not; I hit rock bottom. I had so much shame. I wanted to change my body, and painfully did; eating disorders, plastic surgery. I realized that changing my body didn’t help my self-confidence, it crushed it.”

The average person has probably heard of most of the above concerns but Female Athlete Traid?

What is that exactly?

The basic definition can be found at the educational site kidshealth.org. “Some girls who play sports or exercise intensely are at risk for a problem called female athlete triad. Female athlete triad is a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. A female athlete can have one, two, or all three parts of the triad.”

Eating disorder and osteoporosis, which is a weakening of the bones due to the loss of bone density and improper bone formation, are more commonly spoken of.

Amenorrhea, according to medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com, is the absence of menstrual periods. Primary amenorrhea is the failure to start having a period by the age of 16. Secondary amenorrhea is more common and refers to either the temporary or permanent ending of periods in a woman who has menstruated normally in the past. Many women miss a period occasionally. Amenorrhea occurs if a woman misses three or more periods in a row.

Emily is not only a survivor, she takes it to the next level and inspires.

Our beauty’s message is spreading. The informative huffingtonpost.com reports, “Emily has been tapped as Mind Body Green’s Top 100 of the World’s Most Influential Thought Leaders for her work in promoting radical honesty and healthy body image.”

“Self-esteem is made up primarily of two things: feeling lovable and feeling capable.”… Jack Canfield

According to famousbirthdays.com, Emily is a graduate of University of North Carolina’s Business School and was born in Fairfax, Virginia.

Let’s travel there.

Fairfax is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2015, the population was 24,013.

The City of Fairfax is an enclave within Fairfax County. However, Fairfax County is a separate political entity.

Situated in Northern Virginia, Fairfax is part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Fairfax is 16 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

The city site fairfaxva.gov is very proud of her community. “Nestled in the suburban expanse of the Washington DC metro region, the City of Fairfax, Virginia, with its hallmark landscaped and leafy street medians, is an oasis, unique and brimming with vitality that recently has been recognized by Forbes as one of the top three places to live in the nation.

Our residents aren’t surprised with the city’s many top rankings on “quality-of-life” lists.  It simply comes with the territory for this small city of 24,000 known for its superior “small town” community feel situated in a world-class metropolitan region.”

The global travel giant lonelyplanet.com is equally impressed with the region as well. “Beautiful Virginia is a state steeped in history. It’s the birthplace of America, where English settlers established the first permanent colony in the New World in 1607.

Virginia’s natural beauty is as diverse as its history and people. Chesapeake Bay and the wide sandy beaches kiss the Atlantic Ocean. Pine forests, marshes and rolling green hills form the soft curves of the central Piedmont region, while the rugged Appalachian Mountains and stunning Shenandoah Valley line its back.”

The city is very proud of its support for the educational opportunities afforded its children.

Fairfax High School recently received the US News and World Report’s Gold Award, its highest recognition, for placing in the top 250 out of more than 22,000 schools nationally.

Which brings me to Universities and college football.

It seems that you can tell a lot about a community from the college football team that represents the area like the Alabama Crimson Tide, UCLA Bruins, Cal Bears, Michigan Wolverines and the like.

I was a little surprised after I researched Emily’s childhood community in Northern Virginia what university with a large football program represents them.

At first glance I thought the Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies or possibly the West Virginia Mountaineers would be the local heroes.

Not of those guesses were correct.

It’s the University of Maryland Terrapins.

With its proximity to the Nation’s Capitol, this makes perfect sense.

Emily is from a scenic, highly educated, prosperous and stable part of the world. It is evident in her intelligence, social awareness and ability to lead.

What continues to puzzle, as Femcompetitor Magazine heavily researches and writes about the world of the curvaceous model, is the extreme measure that some women take to fit into a body image they assume we as a society desire.

This writer is from the Bryan-College Station, Texas region and grew up on the South Peninsula in San Francisco Bay Area and never really heard of this body shaming that seems to be pervasive.

It’s a mystery. Many of us love the way that normal everyday women look.

The body shaming and low self-esteem issue appears to affect all social, economic and cultural groups.

The 2002 cult classic Real Women Have Curves, is an American comedy-drama film that takes place in East Los Angeles. It gained fame after winning the Audience Award for best dramatic film, and the Special Jury Prize for acting in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

The lead character Anna played America Ferrara challenges cultural and socioeconomic boundaries, in favor of a life independent from her family.

There is an unforgettable scene in the film where she and her relatives are working in a small factory on a sweltering Southern California day and she encourages and admonishes them to take their clothes off and work in their underwear.

At first there was extreme resistance.

Once done, something was very clear.

Real everyday women have curves.

The world is listening to Emily’s message. We are getting the point. Slowly.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”… Sam Walton

What does Emily have to say to other women about their bodies?

In her 2013 article entitled “Why I Became A Plus-Sized Model (And Why I Hate That Label)” she encourages, “Every woman should feel free to identify with her own unique shape and not a broadly marketed label. We should all feel that we can be whatever size we are.”

Words wise and beautiful spoken eloquently from a gorgeous, shapely woman.

~ ~ ~

Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/amenorrhea

http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/triad.html

http://mykindoflife.com/about/

http://mykindoflife.com/topless/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3256883/I-finally-accept-way-Plus-size-model-suffered-eating-disorder-body-dysmorphia-courage-pose-NUDE-shoot.html

http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/emily-nolan-cosabella-plus-size-lingerie/

http://www.vegbelly.com/emily-nolan-model/#.VuI-mdB7ykw

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/emily-nolan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-nolan-joseph/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-nolan-joseph/model-gets-radically-honest-about-body-image_b_5926866.html

http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/emily-nolan.html

http://thecomfortzoneproject.com/interview-emily-nolan/

http://www.fairfaxva.gov/about-us

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/virginia

http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges-near/virginia/fairfax/