Author: nanallen

There are four purposes for posting selfies on social media—to show the world: 1) how we look, 2) who we’re with, 3) where we’ve been, or 4) what we’ve accomplished. This post begins the third item on that list: Where We’ve Been Tropical sunsets. The Eiffel Tower. The Grand Canyon. A fancy restaurant. These are […]

“I’m from the other side of the tracks.” “I’m from a poor family.” “I don’t even know who my father is.” “I was an accident.” These are lies that we are often told that make us feel unwanted, unworthy, or devalued. A couple of young ladies that I know had been told similar lies. One […]

…or for me it was a Sunday afternoon, and it was my birthday—my 19th birthday. It was one of the worst days of my life.  I was a sophomore in college, and my dad had died a few months before, at the ripe ol’ age of 51. Everyone in our family was reeling from the […]

The cliché “beauty is only skin deep” was revised in my generation to add “but ugly is to the bone.” I heard a retort to news that a girl at my school had excelled academically to the point that she could skip a grade was, “Yeah, but she’s ugly and she’ll never get married.” What? […]

Remember earlier in this series I proposed four purposes we find for posting selfies on social media—to show the world: 1) how we look, 2) who we’re with, 3) where we’ve been, or 4) what we’ve accomplished. This post begins the second item on that list: Who we’re with. Not long ago, at a conference, […]

The human body was built to change. We all know this. A healthy infant seems to grow almost overnight the first year; and for the rest of the human’s life, changes are inevitable. For all women, it seems, their bodies change with every birthday. Those changes are quite normal and part of the Intelligent Design […]

When I was growing up, the Miss America Pageant was a big TV night. While my mother shampooed and pin-curled my hair for church the next day, the whole family watched the pageant. It was our chance to see the faraway (at least from South Alabama) glamorous Atlantic City and 50 of the country’s most […]

The first time I saw Katherine, I was captivated. She was twenty-something, blonde, ever-perfect smile and a gregarious spirit. It was impossible not to like her. She and her husband, Jay, were friends of our 20-something son and daughter-in-law, and we learned more about her through our visits to the Los Angeles church where they […]

The idea of what is beautiful varies from culture to culture. America has the largest cosmetic market in the world bringing in almost 54 billion dollars a year. Hair care products have long been hot in the marketplace, but now skin care has almost passed it in total revenue. Cosmetic surgery continues to grow as […]

 “Because I’m worth it.” That’s a slogan that was launched in the 1970s by the cosmetic line L’Oreal of Paris. The “revolutionary” idea was that women do indeed have fundamental value (which at that time was a rather novel idea); therefore, pampering ourselves with beauty products was a sign that we have discovered and deserve […]