BRAVE and BEAUTIFUL beauty movement

I am Brave and Beautiful – a beauty movement that is sweeping the globe.

Colbie Caillat started it with her recent song and video called TRY.

My blogging friend Megan of Brassy Apple wanted to push this movement along and invited women from all over to share what they looked like without make up and I joined in!! Colbie’s song says,

“Take your make up off. Let your hair down… Look into the mirror at yourself, Do you like you? Cause I like you… “

Megan and her friend Cobi of Peacefrom6pieces have been the team behind this whole project. Their worldwide vision included creating their own video inspired by the song TRY. The talent of Robbins Creative made it possible for them to pull it off. You have to click play and see the beauty and bravery displayed and you might even recognize a few faces in there.

Me along with 101+ other blogging women from different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, ages, shapes and sizes have decided to be Brave and Beautiful! You can join in this movement too by sharing what you look like without makeup on. You don’t need a blog either! Just tag your photo with #IamBraveAndBeautiful on Instgram and search the hashtag to see who else has joined in. ALSO, if you tag it with a second hashtag – #ColbieTRY we just might be able to get Colbie Caillat’s attention since she was the inspiration behind it all!

Are you brave and beautiful? I am, here I go!

MY STORY Part 1 of 2
In my early 20’s, I was once told that I was hiding behind my long hair and that it was dragging me down, literally and figuratively. Whatchu talkin’ about Willis??? Yeah. I thought that was kind of crazy talk too! I mean, long luscious locks are what everyone wants, right? There surely has been a lot of emphasis on that kind of hair for years by models and everyday people picking up what they’re throwing down. It’s what makes you girly and put together, right?

All who knew me in my teens know that I had long hair, sometimes to my booty, but always long, long, long! The memory of any haircuts completely escapes me. Okay. Except for the one I gave myself at the age of 5 in my Raggedy Ann nightgown while my mother was downstairs giving piano lessons. That I remember. I felt powerful taking my life, er, hair into my own hands (enter maniacal laugh here).

My 20ish year old self thought about what I had been told a lot. From the time I woke up in the morning to the time my head hit the pillow at night. So I did it. I trusted the person who gave me that advice and I did it. I cut my beloved long hair! Inches and inches and inches of it. With every clump that fell to the salon floor, I found liberation I had never felt before! I walked out of there with a bounce in my step and my glasses a little rosier. I felt lighter, literally and figuratively. I felt breezy. It’s as if years of proverbial deadweight had been hacked off in one sitting. Because it had!!! I realized that the actual length of my hair I was hiding behind was indeed dragging me down. I still had a long way to go, but it was the start of many self-worth ah-has in my life! Sound strange? Stay with me. The first a-ha being that I had been basing much of my identity on an external part of myself… Something I had been told by others was beautiful and one of my best features. I had been basing my beauty and security off of a superficial part of me. It was a security blanket indeed. I had my femininity and worth all perfectly French-knotted up in my hair.

Since that day I have peeled off more layers and learned that my hair does not make me feminine… My hair does NOT define me! My femininity and worth and your femininity and worth are NOT associated with long locks. In fact for me, I felt even more feminine after going super short in March in honor of a dear friend fighting breast cancer.

(photo credit:  Amie Fagg of Vickery Photography)

(My plan from the day I found out was to go bald for her, but she insisted I not do it, so I honored her wishes)

I know you can say it’s easy for me to say since I’ve never had it stripped from me without a choice. And you’re right. I will never know what it feels like to have it taken away. The shock to one’s self esteem and womanhood must be terrifying and lonely. But I know with every strand of hair on my head that it is truth-it doesn’t define truly who you are! It is a fact that our culture has stripped it away from us instead.

I think partly I felt this way because it was as if my divine nature and power as a woman was revealed. I felt stronger and empowered thinking of my beautiful bald friend each and every time I looked in the mirror. I know you know a little about what I’m talking about because every single one of us has seen an image of our beautiful breast cancer warriors and have thought them more beautiful then ever. Why is that? Because with that taken away we saw only the incredible soul and warrior that radiated from within, more powerful than ever!!! All of the other fluff was gone! It allows their vulnerability and true spirit shine!!! It’s the most beautiful human thing I’ve ever witnessed.

Our culture tells us long hair equals femininity and beauty. Every commercial and magazine cover screams at us that our bodies are not good enough. It tells us that the body, hair and natural beauty we were born with is wrong. The beauty you were born with is NOT wrong.

I repeat: THE BEAUTY YOU WERE BORN WITH IS NOT WRONG!!!

The one and only beautiful YOU is exactly who you were created to be… Your hairstyle or anything else on your exterior is NOT what makes you beautiful! Hair is just an expression of the inner beauty you already have; that you were born with. That’s because what you were born with is not a first impression glance because of what’s visible on the outside. In fact, with less movement in my hair I feel like my true movement is more visible to others in the way I want to be seen…joyful, kind, passionate, loving, and full of life!

I want purpose and goodness to be my beauty!

But I know, without a doubt, I don’t have to try so hard because I am so much more than my physical features!!! I have purpose and potential beyond my exterior!

I don’t have to try so hard because I have more important things to focus on.

I don’t have to try so hard because my daughters are watching me; 3 daughters who I want to

love themselves just the way they are!

I don’t have to try so hard because my expression of my true self doesn’t need to rely on

anything but my heart and soul.

I don’t have to try so hard because the beautiful being I am, has been here from the start.

I don’t have to try so hard because I feel more powerful when I stand in my truth!

I don’t have to try so hard because I am joy, peace, love, kindness, passion, full of life, and BEAUTIFUL!

I don’t have to try so hard because the price of pain and anguish was already paid for me.

Hi.
My name is Dana.

I am a healing victim of perfectionist parenting, static societal brainwashing, and beauty lies.

A recovering perfectionist and passionate advocate of not trying too hard, focusing on the good and not the perceived flaws, bright sides and true beauty shining from the inside out!

Colbie Callait, Megan, and Cobi believe in this movement and so do I!!!

I feel so blessed to be among some inspiring and uplifting women!  We are here in all of our natural beauty and glory to inspire you to not try so hard and like you just the way you are! Do you like you? You don’t have to try so hard!!! I like you! I like you even more when you are raw, vulnerable, genuine and deeply YOU! Let us come together as women and inspire one another to be real and be true to the beauty behind the hair and make-up.

Let’s all love each other from the inside out!

I.  LIKE.  YOU.

So, What are you trying so hard at and what are your true motives behind it?
Pay attention to what your hair does for you… is it holding you back or setting you free? Sometimes we spend so much time on our hair and worrying if it looks good all day, we waste precious moments we could have had focusing on more important things. Be honest with yourself.

Leave your confessions in the comments and meet back here for a burning ceremony. It’s time to let it go.

You can find also find me on Pinterest here, Instagram here, and Twitter here.

Don’t stop here. Get clicking around – its a blog hop! Below are more brave and beautiful women bearing more than their natural beauty. They each have a little bit of their heart to share with you. Some get very personal. Some share stories. For some this was very hard to do yet they gathered their courage and did it anyway. We hope as you click around (and YES pin these different posts!) you will feel the importance of it, the empowering effect it has and that it encourages you in some way.

>>>>>>>Important info! Blog Hops often have glitches the first day. If the link has an ERROR, simply click on the HOME button for each site, or google the blog name next to the link, and you should see their brave and beautiful post there. Links will be updated as soon as possible.<<<<<<<<<<<<

1. BrassyApple 2. Peace from 6 Pieces 3. Is this Really My Life 4. Among the Young 5. Love Me Dani Marie 6. Sweet Charli 7. Kim Orlandini 8. XO, Ashton Tilton 9. She Calls Me Mama Leisha 10. Raising Memories – Canada 11. A Little Tipsy 12. Amy Cornwell 13. A girl and a glue gun 14. My Craftily Ever After 15. Maybe I Will 16. WhipperBerry 17. Paging SuperMom 18. All Things Thrifty 19. Ashlee Marie 20. The Project Girl

21. One Little Momma 22. Entirely Eventful Day 23. Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl 24. Tips from a Typical Mom 25. Utah Sweet Savings 26. Flats to Flip Flops 27. One Krieger Chick 28. What Meegan Makes 29. Simply Kierste 30. Live to be Inspired 31. HoneyBear Lane 32. Pretty Providence 33. Ma Nouvelle Mode – in FRANCE 34. MomEntity 35. Serger Pepper – in ITALY 36. Kiki and Company 37. Girl Loves Glam 38. Thrive

39. The Potters Place 40. Crafting in the Rain 41. Cooking With Ruthie 42. Delineate Your Dwelling 43. The Pennington Point 44. Bakerette 45. The Happy Scraps 46. Shannon Baird Photography 47. Tried and Tasty 48. Lionesses at the Gate 49. Fry Sauce and Grits 50. Lolly Jane 51. That’s What Che Said 52. Sugar Bee Crafts 53. Your Home Based Mom 54. Happiness is Homemade 55. The Crafted Sparrow 56. R&R Workshop 57. I Should Be Mopping the Floor 58. Sassy Steals

59. Let’s Eat Grandpa 60. Being Spiffy 61. Sumo’s Sweet Stuff 62. Ginger Snap Crafts 63. Bless This Mess 64. Apronista 65. Dreaming About Someday 66. Frenchie 67. Tastefully Frugal 68. Four Marrs and One Venus 69. Your Sister Circle 70. Over the Big Moon 71. See Vanessa Craft 72. Infarrantly Creative 73. Family StoryTelling

74. Albion Gould 75. Life as Mrs. Larson 76. Tried and True 77. Play.Party.Pin. 78. Bite of Delight 79. Ink Happi 80. ObSEUSSed 81. U Create 82. My Mommy Style 83. Find it Make it Love it 84. The Contractor Chronicles 85. Novae Clothing 86. Mommy Makes Things 87. At Home with Sweet T 88. We Like to Learn As We Go 89. House for Five 90. Organize and Decorate Everything 91. Sassy Southern Gurl 92. The Creative Mom 93. Keep Moving Forward with Me

94. The Benson Street 95. Mom 4 Real 96. Sowdering About 97. illistyle 98. The Crafty Blog Stalker 99. A Fiery Red Life 100. Cupcakes & Crowbars 101. One Sweet Appetite 102. My DayLights 103. Restless Risa

104. Sypsie Designs 105. Vintage Mother 106. Like Mother Like Daughter 107. 30 Handmade Days 108. Queen B and Me 109. Apples by Ashley 110. Boutique Cafe – in CANADA 111. Just My Little Mess 112. Bombshell Bling 113. Sarah Tyau 114. Taradara Make it 115. Capturing Joy 116. Ivory Lime Photography 117. Jenkins Kid Farm 118. Free Time Frolics 119. Bella Storia 120. Dana Ohlsen Photography

Ready in join in?  Snap, hashtag, and share!  Tag @BrassyApple and @Peacefrom6Pieces if you can too!

Also follow our Bravery and Beauty PINTEREST board for more inspiration!