BRAND NEW VIDEO!

Here's a little something I did today:

Makeup and Acne: A Spoken Word

Spoken Word Contest: Enter!!!:)

Hello my angels!

UPDATE: THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A 100$ GIFT CARD TO BATH AND BODY WORKS! (im dying inside)

I have great news for aspiring writers and poets!

This summer I will be sharing and performing several spoken word pieces on my blog and youtube channel.
Spoken word: a beautiful piece of poetry. Doesn't have to rhyme, just has to mean something.
TOPIC/THEME: my body

Option 1: Want to record your piece and have it featured on the blog for thousands to see?
Send me a clip of your performance before August 1st by email fudgeperfection@gmail.com or by twitter @FudgePerfection

Option 2: Too shy to actually record yourself? Want ME to perform your piece?
Again, send me your written piece by email, and I'll do my best to perform everyone's beautiful words<3

winner will be decided by the number of likes on the youtube video, so get your friends onboard! 


The more the merrier, so don't be shy and get involved. You won't regret it!

Bonjour a tous!

PRECISION: LE GAGNANT OU LA GAGNANTE RECEVRA UNE CARTE CADEAU DE 100$ CHEZ BATH AND BODY WORKS! (ihhhhhhhhhh, je meurs)

Cet été, je vais partager et performer plusieurs poésies récitées sur mon blog et chaine youtube. 
Poésie Récitée: un beau morceau de poésie. Pas besoin de rimes! 
SUJET / THÈME: mon corps 

Option 1: Vous voulez enregistrer votre pièce et le présenté sur le blog? 
Envoyez-moi un clip de votre performance avant le 1er Août par email fudgeperfection@gmail.com  ou par twitter @ FudgePerfection 

Option 2: Trop timide pour vous filmer? Vous voulez me voire perfomer votre oeuvre? 

Encore une fois, envoyez-moi votre pièce écrite par e-mail, et je ferai de mon mieux pour vous rendre fier <3

Gagnant ou Gagnante sera décidé par le nombre de "likes" sur le video Youtube. 



xoxo
Gabby

I Beg Of You: A Body Image Piece

Hello my angels!

I recently performed this spoken word piece, and wanted to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy:)

I beg of you, this small favour I ask,
When you hear me complain about my body
Take me by the shoulders and shake me
And tell me I am beautiful, tell me I am worthy,
So that I too can scream it from the tops of the city.

I beg of you, this is no small task,
When you watch me stare at my reflection in the mirror,
Shatter the glass so that I can see better,
Convince me that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
And If your sight tells you different, look a little harder.
You are not disgusting, not today, not ever.

I beg of you, don't think me crazy,
When you feel me upset about me weight
Erase the numbers on my scale, they don't matter anyway
Let them run with my self-doubt, let them fly away.

I beg of you, never forget this,
When you look into my eyes tonight,
realize that I am you, and you are me.
The only person you need to make you feel alright
To feel your warmth as your light shines bright
To share your beauty as it glows into the night,
Is your own self, your own soul, your own mind.
Best friends come and go, but self-esteem is for life.

The Perfect Bikini Body

Hello my sweets!

Not too long ago, I got an email from a diet and fitness company, which will remain nameless, asking me if I wanted to try out their new diet milkshake and review it for the blog. "Perfect for that bikini body", they said.
...Wat

Awn. Someone probably got fired, because as you probably know, that is the absolute LAST THING I would do on this wonderful piece of internet self-love this blog has become.

And what is the perfect bikini body anyway?
Is it this idea that we have of a tan, Victoria's Secret Angel strutting around in heels (in sand? really? I would sprain my ankle in 3.4 seconds), with legs that go on for days with, wait for it, a freaking thigh gap?
Is it the way our body looks when we pinch in our fat in "all the right places"?
Is it your friend's body, or your cousin's, or your mom's (if so, good for your mom)?

I'm so damn sick of this perfect bikini body bullshit. Here's why:

1. Perfect Bikini Body

I started this blog in 2012, as a dumb sophomore in high school, but if there was one thing I knew back then that still sticks to this day, is that perfection is stupid.

Here is Girl A, who hates her A-cups and loathes the way her hips jut out of her one piece. She's standing next to Girl B, who has an ass that won't quit and a soft squishy stomach.
And Girl A would kill to have that perfect bikini body.

But Girl B? She's self-conscious about her thicker arms, and she despises her wide hips. She's looking at Girl A, and thinking that she would kill to have that perfect bikini body.

...Do we see the problem here ladies?
Perfect is perspective, it's subjective, and if you don't believe that perfection is in you, no matter how many sit ups you do, you never will. 

 2. Perfect Bikini Body

I understand why bikini season makes some girls nauseous with anxiety.
It's the littlest bit of cloth, exposing everything you love, but also everything you hate about that lovely body of yours.

But loving your body is a process, and it may not happen overnight.
If the body in the bikini is not your ideal, make sure the bikini on your body is. 

Every girl needs a killer bikini in her beauty arsenal: one that defines your style, that makes you feel beautiful, that pushes and pulls and tightens and loosens all that "needs" to be.
Alternatives include: killer glasses, killer sundress, killer tan (safe please), killer tattoo or piercing (dont tell your mom I said that).

Whatever makes you forget about your silly bodily insecurities is a-okay with moi:)

3. Perfect Bikini Body

If you're going to sit in the shade covered in towels because your body isn't "perfect", stahp.
Distract yourself from that imperfect body of yours by putting it to good use.

Swimming, sand castle building, volleyball, frisbee, watergun fight, whatever takes your mind off the fact that half your butt is popping out of that cloth.

That's why you have a body, god dammit: not to fret over scars and cellulite, but to move and be active and do the things you love!

----------
According to Fitness Magazine, if Justin Timberlake invited them to a beach party, 36% of women would turn him down because they don't feel they are in good enough shape. 
And that is simply unacceptable.
Never let your body get in the way of your life, especially not JT!

You want the short answer to a perfect bikini body?
Put a freaking bikini on your freaking perfect body.
Done.
You are ever so welcome.

xoxo

gabby

12 Personal Questions Tag: Get To Know Me Yo

Hello my angel food cakes:)

I got such an unexpected positive response from my last personal Q&A that I decided you all deserve another one:)

1. What do you order at Starbuck? Well, I don't drink caffeine, and if I'm going to have a 500 calorie drink, I'd rather just have chocolate, so...water? I'm a sad boring old lady, love me for me. 

2. What's one thing in your closet you can't live without? Boxer shorts. I wear them as pants all the time, never mind the naysayers, or my horrified mother. 

3. Something most people would not know about you? I am into mainstream music as much as the next girl, but I'm also into metal and grunge. I love Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, and Alice in Chains (Dirt era). 

4. Name one thing you want to do before you die. Wow. Get a tattoo, be featured in a newspaper, be happy? I'm 18, I can barely tell you something I want to do before the end of this day (eat probably, what else). 

5. One food you can't live without. Chicken everything. Bagels. CTC (not a drug, the cereal, although it's quite addicting). 

6. What quote do you live your life by? The best way out is always through. Robert Frost. Couldn't get through a panic attack, or math class, without this.

7. Song most listened to on Itunes? my top 3: Black Hole Sun, by Soundgarden (wow that's dark), Set Fire To The Rain, by Adele (fierce), and American, by Lana Del Rey (my queen). 

8. What is your "style"? Um, lost? I'm both alternative and not. Depends on the day, depends on my mood, depends on laundry. 

9. Favorite Number? 12. My birthday is October 12. That's always been my go-to number. True embarrassing fact: my first email was, I kid you not, crazypunk12@yahoo.ca I wish I was kidding. 

10. 2 hobbies: writing, obvi, and working with kids. Also existential crises. 

11. 2 pet peeves: saaaaaand. and slow walkers. Get out. of. my way. kthanksbye.

12. Guilty Pleasures: I don't really believe you should feel guilty about doing things that make you happy, but I guess I'd have to include Netflix and writing random quotes on my body with eyeliner. 

The Dreamcatcher Tattoo: Cultural Appropriation?

Hello my angels,

If you look up "white girl" in the Fudge pPerfection dictionary of stereotypes, one of 3 things will pop up:
1) white iPhone
2) Starbucks
3) Dreamcatcher tattoo

However one of these is significantly more dangerous than the other.
No, it's not a Starbucks addiction, although that sh•t is real and should be treated.
Instead, it's the dreamcatcher tattoo, a staple of white teenage girlhood, according to tattoo artists, Tumblr, and yours truly. Why, you may ask, it seems so harmless?!

Well, not really.
Dreamcatcher tattoos are DEFCON5 enemies of the anti cultural appropriation movement.
I just threw a bunch of words at you, and for that I apologize. Let me back up a bit.

Cultural Appropriation: adoption of some specific element of one culture by a different cultural group. 

Pretty straight-forward so far. Non-Native American folk getting a dreamcatcher tattoo.

These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, can take on different meanings, or lose its meaning entirely (adapted from Wikipedia).

Here is where trouble lies. The website Native Appropriations explains the controversy:
When people buy the dream catchers because they’re “pretty” or to ward off bad dreams, and aren’t aware of the power and history behind the objects, it dilutes them to a commercial object disconnected from their origins and community.

White girl gets dreamcatcher tattoo.
White girl thinks it's pretty, or its meaning is rooted in warning off bad dreams.
White girl doesn't think much of it.
White girl doesn't think she's stealing anything.
Is white girl wrong?

Well, I guess you decide.
Body politics are never black and white.
On the one hand, it is technically CA. She takes for granted the Native heritage and history of the dreamcatcher.
Personally, do I agree with the tattoo? No, of course not. Native American culture is heavily caricatured, as many other minority groups, such as Latino and African-Americans. Think of the all "Mexican" Halloween costumes, minimizing a vast and diverse culture to a few stereotypes!

But here's my problem with this burn-the-witch theory:  we cannot, or should not, regulate other people's bodies.

I don't agree with the principles of Nazism either, but I believe that if someone wants a Swastika tattoo, they may have one. It is their body, hence their (albeit stupid) decision.

So if she wants a big old dreamcatcher, it is her ribcage (let's face it, she totally got it on her ribcage).
Maybe it means the world to her, maybe it doesn't.
But I cannot ever imagine supporting a cause that tries to demean someone's decision to alter their own body. There's enough of that in the world already.


What do you think? What is CA to you?

xoxo

Gabby

Body Positive Tattoos:)

Hello my sweet angels!

I plan on writing a full article this weekend, but today I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite body positive, self-love tattoos. Body mods + Self-Appreciation= I Am In Paradise

I Am My Hair: How To Love Your Hair

I just wanna be myself
And I want you to love me for who I am
I just wanna be myself
And I want you to know, I am my hair
-Lady Gaga, Hair 

Once upon a time, there was a girl.
And this girl was evil, especially towards her naturally frizzy hair.
She fried every breathing strand of her hair with an overheated straightening iron, laughing diabolically as her curly hair dried up like the Sahara Desert.

That girl, big shocker, was me in the 8th grade.
I was OB-SESSED with having straight hair, because my naturally curly hair just wasn't good enough.

Not only did I completely strip my hair of life, and do a terrible job straightening my hair (seriously, ask anyone, the back half of my hair was a mop of curls, good going Gabby!), but I told myself everyday, as I ran my hair through the flames of Mordor, that I wasn't good enough just the way I was.

I know I wasn't alone, and sometimes I still look at my curly lion mane and sigh, wishing for pin straight locks.
Loving your hair may seem stupid and superficial, but it's not. There are generations of young and not-so-young women who wish for the hair of the girl next door, going to extremes to achieve their idea of beauty.
There's nothing wrong with trying to feel beautiful, but somehow, someday, you'll get caught in a rain storm, and loving your hair in its natural state will be pretty handy.
Also, self-love is the shit.

So how do you fall in love with your hair all over again? Here are 3 ideas I hope you can take inspiration from:

Taylor Swift always inspires me to
stay natural and curly with cute
accessories. Google is your friend.

1. Get Inspired

One of the ways I learned to manage my mop of curls was to get inspired by others with similar hair!
It's easy to get caught up in a miserable self-loathing world if you, short curly blond haired girl, idolize long straight dark-haired Pocahontas over there.
Find ways to style it (heatless, if you can), rock different ponytails and top buns, try out headbands and cute clips, and change up your hair cut or bangs; the possibilities are endless!
Keep them as your screensaver on your phone or laptop, to ensure that your brain fully absorbs the self-love juices.

There is beauty in every strand, no matter how frizzy or flat you think it is, so sit your butt down, open Google, and find beauty.


2. Get Practice

This goes out to all my heat styling girls in the world: stahp.
Seriously, you can style your hair without damaging it like evil 8th grade Gabby did, but it's still stripping your hair of natural oils that keep it healthy and shiny.

Now I know going without heat is hard, especially if you're used to it, but practice makes perfect. The more you get used to seeing your hair in its amazing God-given natural state, the more you'll see that natural hair is in fact a beautiful thing. You'll also have more time to learn how you can style it to your taste!
Start with the weekends, or once a week, without heat.
Then up your game, increasing the amounts of time in a week.
Before you know it, you'll be rocking the natural do without throwing it under in a beanie in shame. Because you're better than that.

3. Get Analytical 

Oooh, big fancy word you used there. Girl's getting prepped for the SATs.
In all seriousness, I want you to find a mirror and look.
Look for 1 thing you like about your hair today.
Maybe it's the color, maybe it's your bangs, maybe it's that one random curl.
It doesn't matter how small, how insignificant, trust. This is useful.

Then do the same tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that.
Everyday your hair does something wonderful that you take for granted, because all your eyes can see are flaws.
But your beauty goes way beyond a few out-of-place baby hairs, so don't let those pesky little frizzies make you feel like less of a beautiful human being.


------

Your hair isn't just a conversation topic girls use to hate on themselves in locker rooms; it's a unique piece of your identity, that no one, NO ONE, can exactly duplicate.
That should be celebrated, not stifled by a big old iron.

Have a wonderful day, my pumpkins
xoxo

Gabby