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