Body image and self image are such big factors in today’s world. In the world of celebrity worshipping, how we see ourselves makes such a big difference in who we are and what we do on a daily basis. There are beautiful people plastered everywhere on the front pages of magazines and on the big and small screen — it’s hard not to look at them when you’re buying groceries. New and improved ways to lose weight that goes beyond just diet pills and exercise are always the headline topic of the week. It’s amazing how we don’t get more little girls trying to look like barbie dolls these days.

As if you haven’t figured it out yet (and I’m sure most of you have with the minor slip-ups in various entries), Dave and I are having a baby GIRL. The excitement of this is overwhelming. There are so many happy hopes that come to mind right now. Dave said she will be a strong girl who knows the difference between right and wrong, and will protect the innocent and stand up for what she believes in (aka: stubborn like her Daddy). Dave said he knows I will teach her how to be a strong woman in today’s tough world, and how to hold her head up high and be brave when the world abuses her. I said that she will be beautiful and loving and kind, able to see all perspectives, like her daddy will teach her. What I’m afraid of, though, is a time when she will ask us if she is beautiful and why she doesn’t look like the celebrities on her magazine covers. We will tell her she’s the most gorgeous creature in the world, but whether or not she will believe us, given the time and age we are raising her in, is troublesome to me. I want our little girl to realize that she’s gorgeous inside and out, no matter who she looks like or doesn’t look like, how much she weighs, how tall she is, what color her hair is, or how brightly white her teeth is. It makes me want to move all of us to a remote island where there exists no mirrors and no tv and no Glamour magazines. It makes me want to protect her from the harsh world that will do all it can to shun and poke and prod her delicate soft innocence. It makes me want to protect her from all of that.

I remember what it was like growing up as a teenage girl, gawky and having people tell me I’m ugly because I’m too this or too that. I remember holding it all in. I don’t want her to hold it all in. I want her to believe us when we tell her she’s the greatest gift this earth has ever offered humanity.