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What's Eating You?

Janet wants you to have good self-esteem.

Dr. Janet Taylor

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, when I look at myself - I feel... Okay your turn. Fill in the blank. What do you see when you gaze at yourself? Well, hopefully you're happy with what ya got. But there are many of you who want Janet Jackson hair, abs like Britney Spears, and a butt like Jennifer Lopez. Guess what, it ain't happening.

More and more, young girls (and by young I mean five and up if you can believe it,) don't like the way they look. Some studies published this year found that children, as young as age 5 in Australia and Hong Kong wanted to be thinner. In January, an online US poll found that one-fifth of girls eight and nine want to lose weight. This is a wish that grows bigger as they get older.

What gives? When I was eight I cared more about catching Michael Jackson and his brothers singing than what I looked like. I was more worried about playing with my Barbies not trying to look like one.

Now we have mothers dressing their daughters as Barbies and the kid's section in department stores looks more like Frederick's of Hollywood. It's not right.

And, if you don't like the way you look, there's always plastic surgery. Puhleez. Did you know that the number one requested graduation gift by high school girls is a boob job? C'mon.

You have to learn to love yourself and the package that you came in. Believe me, when you see your favorite celeb on television or in a print ad, what you see is NOT what you get. There is so much makeup and lighting and magic going on, you wouldn't believe it.

Let me tell you something. Once I was going onto a hotel elevator and there was this scrawny, wild-haired woman standing there with a mangy-looking dog (sorry, but they were.) Anyway, I get on and look at them again. Well, it was Julia Roberts. That did it for me. From that day on, I knew the power of makeup. Now this is not to take anything away from her. She's a terrific actress, but oh boy...

The point is this, my crew. Stop comparing yourselves to these overglam, overblown 'beautiful' people. Being thinner will not make you any happier or popular. How you feel about yourself and how you treat other people will always be the most important. Whoever said that 'beauty is only skin deep' was right. Real beauty comes from within.