I woke up to an email from my friend Laura Berg (founder of My Smart Hands) with the subject line, I Am Beautiful Project.
Attached was a video Laura just finished editing. I knew about this project because last week Laura had sent out an invitation to social media moms to shoot a short video to be included. As per usual, her request got lost in my daily barrage of email and I didn't get around to submitting something.
Before breakfast, I called my daughter over to watch the I Am Beautiful video.
There's Laura on camera, talking to moms (like me), throwing our insecurities gently in our face. She hits the nail on the head when she calls us out on the ongoing self-deprecating marks we make in front of our daughters — you know the ones I'm talking about. "I'm ugly, I'm fat, my nose is too big, etc, etc." We make these negative comments without thinking, often muttered under our breath or when we think no one is paying attention.
But the beautiful little girls next to us are little sponges, soaking in everything we do and say, emulating us so they can grow up to become us.
Which is where my guilt comes in. As the video played, my wonderfully wise ten-year-old mini-me looks over at me with a sad smile. Apparently she is only too familiar with what Laura is talking about. It appears that even I, "the yummiest of mummies," have been saying less-than-flattering things about myself within my daughter's earshot. With my daughter's eyes on me, we continued to watch a lot of my social media mom friends announce "I Am Beautiful" in Laura's soon-to-be viral video. I felt that familiar lump in my throat, tears of age-old insecurity being pushed down.
And then, from the kitchen, my husband yells out, "You're both beautiful and you know it."
I hugged my daughter. And wrote this post to share with you. Because you're beautiful too. Thanks Laura for making this video. *wipes tears*
If you liked this post, you may want to read Why I'm Going To Stop Telling My Daughter She Is Beautiful, a follow-up post written by Melissa Gaston, one of our awesome bloggers.
I'm in the business of digital marketing, of connecting brands with moms. I'm fascinated with how the industry is evolving at lightning speed. Everyday there are new technologies, social platforms, apps, and fads I need to know about to stay on top of my game. I heard about the DX3 Conference a couple of years ago. Their mandate is to connect brands, retailers, publishers, and technology companies to help us network and learn.
I enjoyed the conference so much last year, I signed up to be one of the exhibitors this year (which means I have a discount code to share with you at the bottom of the page )! As well as having a booth, I'm going to be sharing my expertise on a topic near and dear to my heart—Five Things You're Probably Doing Wrong With Bloggers.
As you can imagine, I'm on the receiving end of countless pitches directed at me and YMC from PR practitioners who clearly have no clue or care who they are blanketing their requests to or how to create a mutually brand/blogger content strategy. My Facebook feed is filled with eye-rolling accounts of bad brand behaviour unabashedly shared by my influential blogger buddies. Seems like everyone wants to use bloggers' buzz but doesn't understand the rules of engagement. I'll be on stage, taking one for the team, in the hopes of enlightening brands, marketers, PR peeps and fellow publishers on how to create a win/win situation for all involved.
I'm just one of many stellar speakers I can't wait to listen to. I'll be front row for sessions from Eric Harris from BuzzFeed on The Case for Inovation, my Twitter buddy Gregg Tilston, from Flight Centre, is talking about the Case for Social Media, and my sister Leslie Ehm will blow the audience away with her Storytelling for Humans talk. You should go just to hear her :)
But don't take my word for how awesome DX3 is. My buddy, tech guru (and ex-YMC blogger) Amber MacArthur and I decided to team up to try and convince you to come to DX3. Amber will be there interviewing all kinds of fascinating digital innovators and my booth is right across from hers! If I haven't convinced you to come to the show yet, here's what Amber Mac has to say about why you should come to come to DX3.
If you want to attend DX3, use discount code DX3YMC to get $50 off your ticket. And make sure you come by the YMC to win dinner with me!
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