What I Like About You

This is going to be a bit of a stray from my usual topics, but it's something I think is important – so just hold on to your hats! Let's start with a little bit of background... I grew up in a pretty big family. My twin sister and I were the oldest of seven girls. (No brothers, it was all estrogen in that house!) My next-oldest sister is 8 years younger than me, and the youngest is 16 years younger, so we were definitely the older sisters of the family, by quite a bit. Being a girl, and growing up around so many girls, I can definitely testify to the fact that girls tend to struggle with things like self-esteem and body image. For realz. And as much as I still struggle with it, it's something I always wish my sisters wouldn't have to. I mean seriously, they are a smart, talented, and beautiful group of girls, but I don't know if they even realize that about themselves.

So when I got a chance to participate in Dove's self-esteem campaign for young girls, it was an opportunity I had to take. This campaign is all about helping girls realize how awesome they are, just the way they are. Perfect. The activity was actually a really simple concept:

Share five things you like about one another and five things you each like about yourselves. Focus on physicality, personality and character traits.

So I called up my sister S on Skype for a little chat about how great I think she is.

Ignore the awkward happening down in the corner.

Not gonna lie, I felt like it was going to be super weird and awkward, since it's just not something we typically do. The very idea of it made me uncomfortable. But we just dove in and it turned out to be really great! We both just listed our favorite things about ourselves and then about each other and we picked some from each category (physical, personality, character). We fidgeted in our seats the whole time but when it was over we pretty much felt super awesome about ourselves. So don't let your nerves stop you! And seriously, do this with all the young ladies in your life - whether it's a daughter or a niece or just a friend. I'm sure we can all use a good reminder that we're okay just the way we are. :)