I was ready. Somehow
I had managed to become the proud owner of the book, A Year of Health and Beauty by Beverly and Vidal Sassoon. Within the pages of that book lay the secret
to my future success. I would become fit and fabulous. I dedicated myself to
the regiment detailed within the pages and knew that within a year’s time, I
would be the most popular girl at Burrton High School. My dishwater blonde hair and braces would
vanish and instead I would have golden blond tresses and pearly white teeth
radiating from a smiling face full of health and beauty.
It didn’t work. After about six months of self-discipline,
exercise, and skipping the Dr. Pepper, I realized that my 98 pound frame which
seemed to have an aversion to puberty would never develop into the full bodied
beauty which I could clearly see in my mind’s eye. I was hopeless. As if to validate the very low opinion I had
of my 15 year old self, I was ridiculed mercilessly by classmates and felt
invisible to my parents. I would never
be the “it” girl, surrounded by adoring peers hanging onto my every word. No
one would ever ask me for my telephone number. “How many times do you have to
run through the shower before you get wet?” a male student queried one day. I
was the ugly one, the butt of every joke, the girl from the poor family living
in the run down trailer. Not even Beverly and Vidal Sassoon could make a beauty
out of me.
All my adolescent self wanted was to be loved and accepted,
a feeling which I truly believe every young lady desires. I will investigate
those feelings in my next book, and I believe I have the beauty secret the Sassoons
were missing. I am excited for the
opportunity to share it with you.
So, here we go again down another road on a different sort
of journey.
