Relying on an old giggle from Married with Children: "I! Am! A! Model!"
Still living by the phrase "do something that scares you." What this time?
Women's Running magazine is holding a Cover Model Contest.
I'm 44 years old, short, with a few extra pounds. Besides, I do not currently sport a brunette ponytail to bounce magically about my head.
Yet, I am still going to enter, submitting for their consideration a body shot from Adult Nationals, the Detroit Marathon, the River Bank Run, and a head shot from a party.
My one-liner is: A West Michigan wife and mother, Melissa is a freelance writer and graphic designer who runs and figure skates competitively. I also described myself as fun, determined and creative.
I know I'm not pretty, which of course excludes me from being cover model material. So why do it? I'm thinking back to all my encounters with beauty queens. I have had working relationships with not one, but two former national title holders, Shandi, a Ms Missouri turned Ms. USA, and Kirsten, a Ms Michigan turned Ms America. Throw in a Mrs. America, a Miss North Carolina and a few more Miss Michigans I have also known socially. I was a gargoyle in their shadows.
And yet not.
Shandi was my first beauty queen, a local celeb who was a VIP for Catholic Charities at a Go to Bat for Kids event I helped create and promote. Like any girl without a crown, I was prepared to be a bitch, except she looked so miserable and lonely in the suite, her date off working the crowd, so I sat with her. Damned if she wasn't the nicest girl on the planet, and we bonded over beers, baseball and girl talk. She was eager once her reign as Ms Mo came to an end to take me up on learning how to skate, then she won the national title, wrote a book, and became a game show hostess.
Kirsten was a gal who approached me while I worked at a pysch hospital for a little publicity before the national pageant. While we couldn't use her there, I suggested she talk to the girls at the figure skating club. This was a doozy, she talked about mental health and eating disorders, confessing to having developed issues while a teenager. By putting aside any of my own insecurities and defenses, I was able to bring this girl to an eager population that wanted to hear what she had to say and in a few cases, probably helped turn a few girls around.
Looking back on my chance encounters with these beauties, I see my own successes, radiating a little light on what I have accomplished for myself and others. While my hair may not bounce, it certainly puffs with the energy of a gal that has a lot to offer and maybe I too can preen through pictures and phrases. It's important that magazines such as WR know people like me exist and while not maybe me, but someone like me deserves to be celebrated on the cover of their magazine.
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