PLUS MODEL MAGAZINE June 2015 Big Sexy Summer Issue | Page 46

Growing up, I was never encouraged to wear make up, to have a beauty
regimen, or to focus much on my body. I grew up in the outer suburbs
of Boston, in a hub of intellectualism and Descartes, “I think therefore I
am” mentality. Focusing on beauty, fashion and health seemed cheap
and secondary in importance to life’s greater problems and academic
concepts. My father, an academic himself, emphatically desired for me
to be a “feminist” and for me to respect my mind above all else. He had
very strict ideas about wearing makeup or wearing any sort of revealing
clothing, and because of this, I inevitably placed very little value on my
presentation in my teens.

In this world that we live in, where we often forget that we are truly still
on the cusp of the women’s empowerment movement, I feel like I see
this mentality a lot; we worry that by making ourselves beautiful we are
somehow objectifying ourselves and giving away our power. Perhaps
we should be more modest, less attractive and less sexy, so that people
can take us seriously in the workplace, and our bodies won’t distract
men from our minds.

The problem with this mentality is that it fails to recognize how your
body, and the way you decorate it, is ultimately the greatest physical
expression of your mental creativity. You body and its preservation is
art in itself. It is 100% related to your mental state. Happy people are
beautiful people.

Read more from Anne Tello on our blog www.plus-model-mag.com
Check out Anne’s new single ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ at www.annetello.com