Curves and Gap-Teeth.

The aroma of cinnamon and sugar wafted from the oven as I piled a batch of freshly-baked oatmeal cookies onto a plate and placed it on the kitchen table. As we chewed, laptop centered between the three of us, we began to browse the internet.

We decided to check up on the latest posts on one of my favorite blogs, The Sartorialist, which depicts street style. I scrolled down a bit to find a post that featured a new fashion blogger Scott Schuman had met in Milan. She was beautiful--simply dressed, and completed her look with a pair of chunky royal blue heels. What was most exciting for Scott was the fact that she was a "curvy" girl who challenged the waif-like model image that has been established for the fashion blogging genre. He additionally complimented her seasoned ability to dress for her body. Followers of the blog flooded the comment section in outrage. How could Schuman say this girl was "curvy" when she was clearly of a "normal" size? Immediately an update was attached to the post apologizing to anyone who was insulted by the blogger's word use. But Scott didn't leave it at that. He challenged his audience by leaving them with an extremely valid thought : "So help me understand; what is the modern way to speak about size? [...] Let's not hide from this issue; I don't want to be afraid to talk about it on my blog. Help me describe this young lady without using the word "normal," but in a way that addresses her body size and still references my point about the size of her legs relative to her shoes". This brings me to another point. Are body-adjectives really necessary? I truly believe that there could never be a system of categorization that would escape insult in someone's books. A woman who is a size 6 could be described as both "slender" and "curvy" depending on who she is being compared to. And in this lies the point. All of the adjectives we have conjured up in society that categorize the human body only function when they have something to be compared to. Bodily juxtapositions are unhealthy and truly only lead to feelings of inefficiency within oneself.

As we finished up the plate of cookies our conversation expanded to the larger scope of the current trends in the media. I expressed my personal excitement over the glimmer of variance in body and beauty representation we are beginning to see. Individuals such as plus-size model Crystal Renn (an absolute personal favorite, read the book Hungry if you haven't already), and gap-toothed model Vanessa Paradis, the current face of Chanel are helping to change what is defined as "beautiful" within our society.

What's perfect about this growing trend of individuality is its timing. Once upon a time the media gave us trends. Now we control them. Grassroots --especially bloggers are responsible for the change we will and already see in the trends. What is defined as "beautiful" in society will be according to what we believe it is. So begin to believe that something unordinary about yourself is beautiful, because it is no longer in the hands of something bigger than us. It is us.