Empowered Swaggerette: Valerie Bertinelli

In a new interview with People Magazine, Valerie Bertinelli speaks about the pain of growing up in front of the cameras amid criticism and pressure. Now, at 60 she’s found self love and acceptance as an empowered woman.

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Image: People Magazine

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellness/valerie-bertinelli-talks-about-her-lifelong-issues-with-her-weight-has-struggled-to-discuss-her-feelings-after-brothers-death/ar-BB1420bH

Click onto the link to read the full MSN coverage. 

 

The “One Day at a Time” actress reveals when her issues with food started, saying, according to “Today”: “The very first time I became really aware of my body, I remember my fifth-grade teacher patted me on the belly and said, ‘You might want to keep an eye on that.

Bertinelli insists she no longer puts as much pressure on herself: “I don’t weigh myself as much anymore. I’ll put on some jeans once in a while to see how they feel. Why do I have to know the number I am?”

– People Interview excerpts

I remember when the 2009 cover came out  I wished so badly I could wear a bikini. I had put on so much weight under some serious depression, my bikini days way behind me. Over a decade later I’m accepting of the body I have and proud of the woman I’ve becomeimage111

While I know this happens to men and women, the pressure on women is a lot tougher starting when we’re little girls. Adults need to become conscious of the pressures and body shaming we put on little girls who grow up seeing themselves as flawed instead of unique and beautiful.

I hope celebrities of all sizes keep sharing their stories so women everywhere will never feel alone.

 

 

The Day You Love Yourself

“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? 
Actually, who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
 There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.” – Marianne Williamson

During the first hours of 2013 I wrote a set of intentions, but this year I wrote the most important one of all – to love ME.

What is the day you’ve planned to start loving YOU? We schedule our lives to the minute, texting, emailing, driving frantically in traffic to get from here to there and keep our lives on track. It’s so easy to lose sight of who we are in the world not whom we’ve become for others.

Screen Shot 2013-01-10 at 10.16.57 PMAs a woman with curves living in a size zero city, it dawned on me that I was unconsciously living as if skinny was superior to my curves – that I had only a “personality”. Thankfully there is a curvy revolution rapidly growing with gorgeous, confident and beautiful women refusing to be ignored.

Believe me, I’m not suggesting you’ll wake up in the morning “all better” with no memory of the insecurities that plagued you. I only ask that you be willing to open your heart to be inspired to love all of you – right now as you are.

We all have things we’d like to change, even my skinny girlfriends voice their complaints. I’ve chosen to stop allowing myself to keep from appreciating what I have by surrounding myself with others who appreciate me.284571270176473004_dt7uGYVc_c

Don’t wait until you lose weight before you really look in the mirror. You’re alive in this day right now and we’re not promised tomorrow. Take time to see all the curvy beauties that are the majority of this world. It’s not about us versus the skinny girls – it’s about celebrating being a curvy girl.

The day you love yourself is today.

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