YOU are enough

I'm 5' 6 1/2" tall. This may not mean much to most but to me, as a teenager, it meant I was 1/2 an inch too short to get modelling work. I wasn't going to become a Supermodel at that height so I resigned myself to modelling failure and I focused on acting Truthfully I preferred the acting as it gave me a character to hide behind, which was my coping mechanism in my teenage years. Later I became a talent agent, having been part of the industry it gave the an interesting insight about people.

Inside every one of us is a scared 17 year old filled with doubt.

Last night the daughter of a good friend was asking me about this, as she had been told by peers that she would never be able to model.

As teenagers we do daily war with bullies, naysayers and mean girls. Kids, here's a horrible secret the grown ups neglected to tell you.....

Growing up isn't going to fix this. Life is full of bullies and mean girls and all sorts of rude, rough, unfairness and there is nothing you can do about it.

As grown ups we joke about trying to figure out what we're going to be when we grow up, but the truth is that caught inside each of us is a freaked out 17 year old questioning life. Even the most confident adults have moments where they wonder.

Did I make the right choice? Why did I say that? How could I have handled that better? Why don't the right words come until AFTER a conversation is done? Why can't I lose this weight? When will I stop struggling to make ends meet? Did I do enough? Have I acquired enough? Am I tall enough? Skinny enough? Smart enough?

Here's the good news, YOU are enough. And because you are enough, you will learn to handle it yourself. You learn to pretend your way through the roughest of situations.

Sometimes you'll still curl up under your covers at night (or mid afternoon) wishing the issue that plagues you away. Then you'll dig down deep crawl out of bed and deal.

Somewhere along the line, in the battle against life, societal norms and age you will realize that your experience is unique to you. Your truth is yours and yours alone. People won't agree with you or fall in line, but its yours to own.

Success is simply the choice to be where you are everyday. The best way to handle a mean girl, naysaying bully? Be better. Do better. Show compassion, after all she or he are as little as the words they need to use to make themselves feel bigger. That isn't worth your time or energy. The best revenge is to be who you are and have a life well lived. Nothing annoys them more.