Atoosa Rubenstein Is Proud Of Her Greatness, Aren't You?
Today's lesson from former Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein: Affirm your greatness. Do not be one of those girls who hides her light under a bushel, engages in self-deprecatory behavior, or apologizes. It will keep you from embracing your inner 'Toos. Without pride, how you pull off a brass-knuckles-sized ring that spells out Big Momma?
I used to be like that, and am trying to recover from it now. Because I was embarrassed of my greatness, I focused instead of trying to be PERFECT in order to deserve the praise. That came with it's own cauldron of pressures, sister because as you know, NO ONE is perfect...Yet everyone has their own brand of greatness. That is the beautiful thing. Still, I felt pressure from my Mother to be all the things SHE wanted me to be because she didn't have the opportunities. I felt pressure from the magazine industry to be the kind of editor, THEY thought I should be. I felt the pressure from my husband to be the kind of wife HE thought I should be. And somewhere along the path of perfection, I lost the sense of being the kind of girl I WANTED to be and actually WAS - it all became blurred with everyone else's preferred roles for me.
There is also a quote from Marianne Williamson, which The 'Toos notes, is "often incorrectly credited to Nelson Mandela, who has said many other brilliant things himself." Oh has he? We're overwhelmed with the greatness here. We're going to lie down.
