Glamour

If you are not an intellectual snob (and I am not), you can find insight everywhere. Glamour magazine spoke to me today.

In the September issue, Glamour published this picture of Lizzie Miller, who is a stunningly beautiful size 12-14 model. There was an avalanche of support that surprised even Glamour. To date there have been more than a million views of the photograph on glamour.com. The outpouring of emotion from people who wrote in – not just the women readers you imagine but mothers, daughters, men – was extraordinary.

My favorite comment that the editor shared was a mother from Louisiana who emailed, “When I showed my six-year-old girl, she said, ‘She looks like you, Mommy … beautiful'”

But Cindi Leive’s editorial had one line that I think has resonance far beyond body imagine. She asks, Why are we so hard on ourselves, when the people who love us are so much more forgiving? I don’t know. But it’s an excellent question, and one worth spending some time with.