Honest Selfie #3: Ivy’s story

My name is Ivy. I love taking photos of myself and the result of my makeup! I honestly say I like being artistic when I mix cool shades of eye shadow, eyeliners and lipstick and am creative with it. But I don’t base beauty through that. At the end of the day, I have to remove it and see that “it’s me!” with or without makeup. We are all beautiful and wonderfully made.

Honest Selfie #2: Jenny’s story

I post a lot of no makeup, no filter selfies because I think it’s important to show the world real faces of women in this day and age of Photoshop and makeup obsession!!! I love taking pics and sharing my uniqueness. I never found myself beautiful in the conventional sense, which sucked when I was younger, but now I love my wide-set eyes, my upturned nose, my freckles and my cheekbones!!!

–By Jenny (follow her on Twitter and read her blog)

Honest Selfie #1: Premee’s story

Editor’s Note: A couple weeks ago, I asked you to send me an Honest Selfie — a single snapshot, unfiltered, that shows off your sheer awesomeness! I was inspired by Dove’s Selfie documentary, and judging by the submissions I received, you were too! I’ll be sharing a new selfie story every day for the rest of the week, starting with…

Here is a selfie that I took a few months ago to prove to a friend that I was indeed at the airport like I said I was! He refused to believe me until I sent him a photo. I love this photo because it was my first time wearing that lipstick – it was like a stoplight, every time I saw myself in a mirror I was like, “WHOA, WOMAN, WHO ARE YOU?!” But by the end of the trip, I loved it! Also, my friends could tell you this is a very characteristic expression for me, all smushy and doubtful. This photo is a great representation of who I am. I don’t think about looking pretty in a selfie; I think about looking the most like myself. :)

–By Premee

30 rules for boyfriends

Who rules the world? Blaire and Brooke, I hope! Their boyfriend must-haves are spot on, aren’t they? Six-year-old Blaire loves Justin Bieber, but Brooke, the wiser nine-year-old, has some solid advice for her young friend, which inspired this list.

A future boyfriend “should be someone who is better than Bieber and not always getting in trouble.”

My thoughts exactly, ladies! xoxo

[Via Huffington Post]

An Open Letter To My Body

Dear Melissa’s body:

Hello there — here we are. We meet again. Well, we’re never really apart, obviously, but it’s not often that I actually take the time to reflect on our relationship. At least, it’s not something I’ve spent a lot of time doing lately, anyway. And, really, maybe that’s my mistake. In the past, I used to “check in” quite regularly. I mean, I wrote about you for xoJane. I talked about you in Video Hellos. I’ve criticized, critiqued and celebrated every part of you. But sometimes? It still feels like we’re on different teams. I know that probably sounds crazy — how can we be on opposing teams when you’re me and I’m you. And yet, it’s all too true sometimes. Most of the time, I can look in the mirror and smile at what I see staring back at me. After all, I’ve worked hard to come to terms with my disability and its place in my life. I won’t pretend like it’s been an easy journey because, as you know, it hasn’t been. It’s been a lot of give and take, a whole bunch of back and forth. So, yes, sometimes I can’t help but smile when I see just how far we’ve come.

But other times? I can’t help but feel like we’ve got a lot more work left to do. Does everyone feel that way? I suppose it’s natural — I mean, we’re our own worst critics — and sometimes, you just can’t help comparing yourself to other people. I do want to apologize for that, though. Because that’s not really fair to us. Maybe I need to be a bit more gentle with myself and cut myself some slack when it comes to loving myself and my body. I’m sorry for all those times I’ve called you “fat.” I’m sorry for all the times I made you feel like ugly was all you were. I’m sorry for all the times I made you feel like your physical appearance determined your worth. It wasn’t fair. And it will never be fair. So, on that front, yes, we still have some work ahead of us.

I don’t mean this to sound depressing because I’m not trying to be. I promise. Maybe I’m trying to show you that I’m continuing to grow and am inviting you to keeping walking with me on this path I’m on. I think that if we joined forces, we could be a pretty powerful team, don’t you think? Dare I say it…we’d be unstoppable. If nothing else, please remember just how much I love you. After all, we’re all we’ve got. Let’s stick together, OK?? xoxo

[Second photo via We Heart It]