By Mariel Howsepian West Dressed
IN ONE OF MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK photos, I have no lips. The unctuous photographer had told me to “Smile, princess,” and I smirked. I only exacerbated the problem by drawing a Muppet-worthy set of red lips on my photo in every yearbook I could get my hands on. Oh, adolescence.
At 9 years old, I wanted so badly to be “Double Digits.” From 10 to 12, I wanted so badly to be a teenager. At 13, I wanted to be 14 so I could get a work permit. To be 15 to get a learner’s permit. Sixteen to get a driver’s license. Eighteen to be an adult. Twenty-one to drink. I could never enjoy the present.
“How old are you?” Last week, I found myself amid a gaggle of girls ages 11 to 18 at the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club.
“Fourteen,” Jennifer Petrucci said. “Well … almost.”
Petrucci was one of four winners in a national contest sponsored by Retin-A Micro Pump and ELLEgirl.com. Girls were asked: What does beauty mean to you? Entrants answered this question by creating collages, paintings, Power Point presentations, and writing essays.
The prize package included round-trip airfare, a week-long stay in a hotel with an ocean view, a bag filled with products from Neutrogena, and a week at My Beauty Camp.
Camp founder Gabrielle Thomas wants to get one thing straight. “It’s not ‘beauty camp.’ It’s ‘My’ Beauty.”
The camp’s goal is to empower girls to become successful women.
Winner Beatrice Ebijimi, 13, wants to be an OB/GYN.
In addition to learning how to give themselves facials and apply makeup (“not fake-up”), campers learn things like how to balance a checkbook and how credit cards really work.
Daily fitness classes help the girls learn how to work exercise into their everyday lives, and daily cooking classes help the girls learn how to prepare healthy meals. (On one of my visits to the camp, I walked in while the girls were cooking chicken breasts on a George Foreman Grill.) The teens participate in workshops about goal setting, etiquette, making smart financial choices, and what it takes to prepare for and succeed in college.
My Beauty’s symbol is a butterfly. When Thomas was 14 years old, in an attempt to make herself attractive to boys, she plucked out all of her eyebrows.
This was not the look she was going for. Now, at 26 years old, Thomas shows campers a photograph of herself and says, “Look, everybody has to go through this phase. You’re not the only caterpillar.”
At the beginning of the week, Thomas says the girls walk in hunched, with their heads down. By the end of the week, the girls have metamorphosed. The last day of camp includes a photo shoot.
Thomas describes how the girls pose. “BAM! Shoulders back. Big smile. Chin up.”
When I asked winner Tyler Williams, 14, for her definition of beauty, she said, “Everybody has their own opinion of it. You can’t be beautiful on the outside if you aren’t beautiful on the inside.”
True. Simple. Winner Mercedes Knibbs, 15, gives me a similar answer. “You can be the most beautiful person, but you can have a bad attitude and that makes you ugly.”
I would have totally lost this contest. I would have made a collage, pasting Manolo Blaniks and Jessica Simpson-endorsed hair extensions to a skeleton.
According to the winners, the highlights of their week included visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame, seeing the Hollywood sign, shopping on the Third Street Promenade, and having their pictures taken.
Shoulders back. Don’t smirk.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2008. Read the original PDF.