I AM.

I knew I would have to set aside quite a bit of time to talk about this today, because it's something I'm incredibly passionate about. I'm talking, to the point of wanting to do this as a career, something that means so much to me.

As it was our last day of my epic Critical Thinking class, we naturally had a final project. Part one of the project was to write a paper explaining said subject, and then on Tuesday, we had to do an actual presentation in front of the class.

Well what was the project on, ya nutta?

Basically, we had to create an organization or charity on a solving a subject/issue/crisis that we were really passionate about. I was in a group with my girls Whitney and Jordan, as well as another gal named Courtney, and the topic that we chose was healthy body image.

For me, it all started two years ago when I was informed at a modeling convention, by some of the top agents in the industry, that I was a little "too tall" and that to model, I either had to "drop 20 pounds or eat donuts and become a plus."

First of all, I never knew that you could be "too tall" to be a model. And yeah, the ideal height is somewhere between 5ft9" and 5ft11", but you've got girls out there like Karlie Kloss clocking in at 6 ft 1 inch, and then my fave Gwendoline Christie clocking in at 6 ft 3 inches, so don't you be telling me that I'm too tall! And the fact that I never felt comfortable in any modeling category (hips being far too wide for normal modeling and the rest of my body being too small for plus) just furthered my desire to stand up and say FINE. I'll create my own path. 

So that's where my inspiration draws from on this issue.

Whitney struggled with an eating disorder, and God bless her soul for getting up there in front of the class and talking about it.

Jordan suffers from body shaming, so being made fun of for being naturally skinny.

Courtney had someone very dear to her suffer an eating disorder as well, and so she has the outside point of view on unhealthy body image.

I don't want to go into details about what I AM is all about, because to be honest, we want to take this to the next step. I'm talking possibly writing to Ellen Degeneres or something like that. We're that fiery about this subject! The main thing I want to tell you about I AM is that it is an organization dedicated to educating and helping women who suffer with unhealthy body image. And when I say "body image", I don't mean that curvy is the new skinny, or that tall is the new thing. I'm talking about acceptence of all body types and the celebration of YOU.

I wish we could've recorded this presentation because truly, we're all so proud and so passionate about this subject. Who knows though? Like I said, we want to take it a step further.

Mary Lambert couldn't have said it better herself:

"...I know I AM because I said I AM..."

Also, check out this beautiful video below down by Whitney. Truly was proud of her.

I AM

We ended up handing out the lovely Dove chocolates to the class as well because 1.) it's chocolate and chocolate makes you feel better and 2.) the inside wrapper contains uplifting messages.

To all those modeling agencies that told me I was too tall and too fat to be a model, that I wasn't worth it... Well, I am worth it. I'm frickin' awesome.

So proud of these girls.