All of you have heard the term ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. I won’t go into an explanation of what this obvious term means. Each of us sees something different when we look at a person, place, or thing. Even though what we are looking at is the EXACT same thing, our eyes observe it in very unique ways. There are a million things I could do to display all our diverse views of beauty, but there seems to be a standard for beauty that is somewhat impossible for any woman to live up to. This standard is unrealistic and even if it may be the common idea of attractiveness, it isn’t how I see the beauty of our world.

I assume that if you are reading this, you are probably like me. I am NOT perfect. I am overweight, my hair takes a good 20-30 minutes to look salon styled, and my lips are so thin that they are almost nonexistent. Or at least that is how I see myself. In fact, most of us ONLY see our flaws. 
All my apparent defects are lost on the man who loves me. In his eyes, I am so captivating that he finds it necessary to inform me 3 or 4 times a day about how beautiful I am. (And yes, I know how lucky I am.) I don’t see the stunning woman he does when I look in the mirror. I see the pale skin, the jiggling tummy, and the flat hair. Why? Because I don’t fit that standard of beauty that I have grown to believe is how I should look. 
Am I fat? Well, yes, but I still have the hourglass figure I should and my doctor has given me a ‘super’ clean bill of health. I refuse to starve myself or search out the next fad diet. I work forty hours a week on my feet in physical labor. I have never had a sit down job where I sat around getting fat. The last two years of my life have been focused on me trying to be healthy and I accomplished that, even if my body is still on the pleasantly plump side. It makes me wish I had grown up in an era where thick women were revered. I could have been a goddess in those times with my quick witty words and my voluptuous curves.

The cold hard truth is that beauty is not appreciated anymore. Physical appearance means more to society than a heart of gold. I was born lucky. I am blessed with a family full of strong, big-hearted women. Through them, I learned to see things in a unique perspective. I always knew I was special because they took their time to tell me. Not with just words, but with hugs, kisses, and them taking the time to see me for who I really was. To me, all of their beauty is a bright beacon that shines out to everyone they cross paths with. I am sure people could find flaws in each one of them, but to me they are as close to perfect as it gets. 
I try to write my characters with flaws, because I have never met a PERFECT person. Some of my characters may be perfect on the outside, but the inside has flaws or weaknesses. I try to write people like the people I know. No, they are not exact copies of real people, but their small nuances and vices, or their idiosyncrasies, fall into the fictional personas I create.

I used to always make jokes about online friends. I guess the joke was on me. While finding my first fandom, I also found a group of completely individual women and young ladies who blinded me with their stunning beauty and individuality. I can’t say I have ever had the chance to meet any of them face to face, yet they are some of the most beautiful women I have ever met. I have had the pleasure of getting to know some of the sweetest and bravest women out there on this big rock we share. 

’Shira’ is one of them. She is from Israel. With the wars that ravage the Middle East, she has felt the backlash of that in the few years she has lived there. She was raised in the United States and moved to Israel with her family. Before I got to know her, I would never really have understood why someone would leave America to live in a country where danger is a high possibility. Yet once I got to know her, I realized how strong and brave she was. She isn’t a fighter in any way. However, there is a fierceness to her much like that of a lion who defends their pride. Her love for her family and their beliefs is evident and gives me insight into why she would leave any home to be with them. She is extremely vocal about who she is and what she believes in, even when she is the only one on her side.  
Check out her blog Think Uncensored

This is beauty! This is what I want in the characters I write about! Someone who is not one dimensional. A person who feels with all their heart and fights with all their strength. A woman who is strong, brave, devoted, and not afraid to be who they are against any odds. I hope I can write about someone as strong as you one day, ’Shira’.

Then there is ’Tracey”. She has a compassion that almost brings me to my knees. She feels every emotion like it is the only emotion in the world. When she is mad, steam rolls out of her. When she is happy, she spreads that joy across every divide! Her sadness, though rare, is heartbreaking because as someone who knows her, I know how deep that sadness can be imbedded inside her. She is shy, but at the same time she is open and direct. She spends her days working with children, something I wholly respect because I have a short fuse. She loves deeply and any man would be lucky to fall for a woman as passionate as this one. 

We see love and compassion as weakness at times. Someone who is almost debilitated by the feelings that come to them when the seasons change may not be your vision of beauty, but I find someone like ’Tracey’ to be a force of nature so pure she rivals the sun.


And ’Ebs’ found her way into my heart for her irrevocable smile. She is a mother, a business owner, and has a very confident outward appearance. She is easy to love and silly. Her heart is big, never stopping herself from loving someone because they may not fit the ‘ideal partner‘ category most people think you should choose. Her happiness is infectious and she always finds a way to bring a breath of light breezy air to any conversation. Check out her business page: Ebony Belle Beauty

‘Ang’ has won my respect through her struggles with lupus. Her pain isn’t why I respect her. It is her strength and her focus! She doesn’t fall apart when she is having a bad day and she doesn’t beg others for sympathy. It is no wonder she found an amazing man who stands by her through it all, she is a special girl who is smart and loves to help others. She is an avid reader, a blogger, and a writer, too. Check out her brand new Page



So many of these ladies are beautiful in their own right.
‘Dani’ is a college student who has big dreams and bright, intelligent eyes. 
‘Mel’ is the comic relief and bringer of smiles.
‘Daph’ is full of all the things that will make some comic book nerd very happy one day.
‘Meg’ is sweet and big on family. 
‘Lily’ is mischievous and threatened to hunt me down if I didn’t add her name to the article, little did she know I was already adding her. 
‘Tia’ is a city girl with a huge smile and a big heart. 
‘Alexa’ is empowered and I can’t imagine she won’t find her way to great things. 
‘Harley’ is our resident social media queen who might one day be working for PETA with her love of animals. She has a Young Adult Book Quotes tumblr page, stop in and check it out.
'Uzma' and her optimistic outlook on the world, makes me see things through different, kinder eyes. 
’Lae’ is kind and goes out of her way to help people. 
’Oda’ brings me out of my comfort zone with her fresh ideas. ’Kristyn’ is an aspiring writer who wants to be so much more one day. Check out her Author Page
‘Chris’ is bold and determined. Check out her Movieplot.com Page
‘Jess’ is bloody brilliant and should look for a future in book editing. 

There are WAY too many of my wonderful TOV family to name, but they are all special to me. Some of them have become a huge part of my day to day life and I worry about them and feel sorrow or joy with them. They may not all look in the mirror and see how unbelievably astonishing they are, but none of us do. We are all extraordinary in our own way. We just have to look at ourselves through someone else’s eyes to see it.

Plenty of the beauty in our world goes unnoticed simply because no one takes the time to look past the surface. I often find myself drawn to the people and things that are considered odd or less appealing than that perfection so many others are trying to achieve. To me, the flaws are what make someone/something unique and appealing. I’ve never loved someone for the big reasons, like money or their killer physique. 

I love my mom because she only sees the good in people. On the flip side of that coin, my best friend can only see the evil that boils beneath the surface of everyone. My husband is antisocial and his honesty has me telling him at least one time a day that he is a jerk, yet he also hears me say I love you at least three times a day. I always love the little things, those little things can be so much more rewarding than money or looks, which will fade away in time.


The world would be a different place if everyone could see it through my eyes. All I can do is take the beauty I see and write it into the fictional people I create. I may never change the world with my words, but I hope I can open a few people’s eyes to a different kind of BEAUTIFUL.