How I did it: I was going to Hawai'i for the first time, with my mom, and I knew that I wanted to take the chance to forget about what I look like and feel totally glam from the inside.  I was only going to be with my mom and aunt - and I had a lovely sweetheart at home, so I wasn't looking to attract anyone - so I decided that I needed an amazing bikini and giant sunglasses, to lay out and feel deliciously sexy, all by myself.  It worked!  I found a black and white animal print bikini with red trim (adorable) and big old sunglasses with rhinestones on them, and laid out with the best of them.  I'm not thin, and never have been.  I'm pale, covered in stretch marks from a fast puberty, and have many visible scars from cutting when I was a teenager.  Despite all that, I felt fabulous.  There were so many different bodies on the beach anyway - pale, dark, pregnant, big, little, young, old - that I fit right in.  And it was so liberating to just be able to soak up the sun and run into the water without all the tugging and fear and hiding under a towel or sneaking secret glances at people to see if they were staring at me. 

Lessons & tips: I started by having a vision, asking myself, "How would I do this if I were one of those supremely confident people who loved themselves warts and all?"  And then I just did that. It was kind of a fake it til you make it process, but it worked!

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Jan 12, 2009, 09:30AM PST | 1 comment | 4 cheers