something secret

If you've been anywhere near social media in the last few days then you've probably already seen or heard about Dove's latest campaign effort: The Dove "Real Beauty" Sketches. The sketches are presented as a "social experiment" to show women that they are "more beautiful than they think." A forensic artist draws two sketches of each woman: one drawn from descriptions she gives of herself, the other from a stranger's description of her features. We then sit back in awe as the woman in question is presented with both sketches; confronted with the fact that she is perceived to be significantly more  attractive  than she considers herself to be. Now, I've taken Dove to task for this campaign before (in fact that post remains the most read and visited post on this blog, week after week, more than 6 months later) but I think that it bears repeating why this campaign, while clearly well-intentioned, is horribly misguided. I'll even admit

I got fired from my job as a copywriter two weeks ago today. After six months of working my ass off at an advertising agency, I was told that maybe the work just "wasn't for me." I'm not even sure that I disagree. I'm confident in my writing ability, and I'm great with ideas, but creative writing is not my thing. I write about real issues, in the real world, that I'm passionate about. Pulling headlines from mid-air has never been what I do. And yet, I'd be lying if I said it didn't sting to be told I wasn't good enough. It hurt to feel like I had failed where I had been so determined to excel. Because the thing is, I liked my job. A lot. I legitmately loved going there everyday and I loved the work I did, and the people I worked with. I'm genuinely upset to not be working there anymore. Landing the job in the first place was a coup. I wasn't qualified. Not really. But I was passionate, and eager and willing to learn, so they let me take

via  CNTM Stephany photographed by Pedro Virgil I'll spoil it for you now. Both Trudy and Susan were eliminated and only Stephany and Treveen remain. There really isn't much more to say about it other than that, so we'll skip straight to the recap. Stephany continues to surprise me. While I'm not completely convinced that she's ready for the kind of work that CNTM should  be preparing her for, she's been creeping up in the ranks. She improves every week, and  has been focusing on improving rather than interpersonal drama. She's slowly convincing me that she's a contender. This shot is one her strongest to date. It's dramatic and eye-catching, but I can't be sure that that is due to her skill as a model. I am confident that she has a future in modelling however. She has an incredible presence and continues to show that she would be pleasant to work with. Going into the finale, I'm cautiously putting my bets on Curacao. I'm beginning to th

I want Lizzy Caplan to be my best friend. I bet you want her to be your best friend too. Tough shit though, 'cuz I called dibs. You know that feeling you get when you read about a celebrity enough, or see enough of their work that you think you have them figured out? "JLaw looks like she'd be down to hang!" you say. Or "Rebel Wilson would be awesome to party with." Yeah, that feeling. That, I-have-never-met-you-but-I-bet-you're-awesome-and-we-should-totally-be-besties-right-now feeling. Here are all the reasons I get the warm-snugglies about my girl Lizzy here. SHE'S A BADASS (AND WITTY AND SMART) Arguably best known as Janice Ian in Mean Girls, Lizzy Caplan isn't the girl you want to fuck with. If you do, she'll make your face smell like feet, and make you fat with Swedish health bars. SHE IS GORGEOUS ENOUGH THAT YOU'RE ALWAYS IN AWE OF HER, BUT NOT SO GORGEOUS THAT YOU'RE JEALOUS Well maybe this is just me, but I seriously think Liz

via fashion gone rogue Christina Hendricks by Max Abadian Because you didn't already know, I wanted to demonstrate how impressively flawless Christina Hendrick's face is. There. Flawless.

via CNTM A still from Stephany's winning CHI nailpolish commercial My biddies, I apologize for this very late review. This week has been hectic, and unfortunately it meant that CNTM dropped to the bottom of my list of priorities. I promise, I did not forget you. But since episode seven airs tonight, and as of yet the footage from the models' commercials has not been made available online, this will be a very abbreviated review. Honestly, the only thing I really  want to talk about this week was Athaliah's unceremonious ejection in favour of Susan in the bottom two last week. Now, Athaliah has garnered herself very few fans over the course of this season, and I would hardly count myself among them, but she did not deserve to be eliminated so early. That is simply a fact. And to send her home in favour of keeping a girl who has yet to take a good picture on purpose, well... I'm every bit as pissed as Athaliah must have been. I think we can all agree that Athaliah is an ou

If I could be my best self, there are a lot of things I'd do differently. There are a ton of bad habits I would break, and some better ones I'd pick up. I have a lot of goals for myself in the long term, but as an early twenty-something, I'd much rather find myself in the fictional television characters I love. I mean, their lives are exciting enough that they're on TV, so why shouldn't I want to be like them? I kid of course! I know that they are all fictional people, but that doesn't change the fact that there have been a lot of brilliantly flawed fictional, female characters over the years.  If I could be anyone in the world, I'd choose to be equal parts of each of these fantastic fictional ladies: Ugly Betty: Betty; one of the characters I most identify with; is a sweet, hardworking, ambitious girl, trying hard to make it in an industry that doesn't want her, and doesn't think she's worth their time. But despite their poor treatment, Betty pe