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2009/2010 CCLC Member Megan
| MEGAN, 13, Ontario Challenge for 2009/10 : The Beauty Challenge Every month Megan was challenged to see if her and her friends could live without either makeup, hair styling, labels, negative talk, and so on. |
| Meet Megan from Ontario. About me: I love to read! My favourite book series are Private, The Clique and I love anything by Sarah Dessen. My favourite colours are blue, pink and purple, and I love to eat sushi. In school, I am on student council, the cross-country team, and Empowererd Student Partnership, a police run program about bullying and other school issues. I am also in the art club. Outside of school, I particpate in swimming lessons. I am in Bronze Cross, which is the highest level before lifegaurd training. Finally, I love to hangout with my friends and family, and listen to music. My iPod is my life. :). What I love about GCDA: Everything! This magazine is so real, and the people who work on it do such a great job of keeping everything together. Plus the topics things girls actually want to hear about, and and they aren't all totally fake and unrealistic. Why I wanted to be on the CCLC: I wanted to be on the CCLC because I want the leadership experience. Also, I would like to show the people in my life just how hard it really is to do the monthly challenges. I think this is just an amazing opportunity that I can't wait to share with all of my friends, family and classmates. Fave motto: "Dance like no one is watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Love like you've never been hurt. Live as though Heaven's on Earth." |
My challenge is the Beauty Challenge! SCROLL DOWN TO READ MY MONTHLY RESULTS... FINAL SUMMARY OF MY CHALLENGE! Looking back on this experience, and the challenges my friends and I have completed, I have realized how many changes have come over our lives. Back nine months ago, I was a very materialistic person, and so were many of the people around me. After working my way through all the challenges, from no makeup for a month to eliminating brand names from my clothes, I have overcome obstacles and changed my outlook about material items. My friends and I all had our own weaknesses when it came to challenges. I really had a tough time with no brand-names, while Sophie had a few issues with hair styling and other girls had some difficulty with no makeup. In a whole I think the hardest challenge for us all was no labels, because most of our clothes are branded. Most, if not all clothes, even pieces not from major companies like Garage, Hollister, American Eagle or Aero, have some kind of branding on them, be it a logo or a small sign of the company. Brand-names are hard to avoid, and that really showed through in this challenge. I think the second hardest challenge was the hair challenge as it was difficult to go without any kind of styling. Personally, I would much rather have super straight hair, then kinda straight, sorta wavy, like my natural hair is. Many times I end up straightening or curling my hair, or styling it with some kind of up-do or whatever. It was just as hard for the others to get over habits as it was for me. Since the beginning of our journey with CCLC and GCDA, I think my friends and I have significantly reduced our materialistic needs, thoughts and habits. I find myself wearing less makeup, using less hair products and complimenting people on their inner beauty much more than their outer style. I like the feeling it gives me to be less dependent on "things" and more interested in other aspects of my community, and social life. Even though I am still quite interested in wearing certain clothing and using products to enhance my natural beauty, like hair stuff and makeup, I have proven to myself that I have choice to do those things or not, and I am capable of choosing not to. Being a CCLC member with Girls Can Do Anything Magazine, has taught me so much, and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to experience this. (: RESULTS FOR APRIL 2010: NON-PHYSICAL APPEARANCE COMPLIMENTS... For the month of April, we all needed to not make the compliments we said about the persons apperence, but their personality. The challenge was actually pretty difficult! Especally on Facebook and other sites where pictures can be posted, most people comment with nice things about the picture, like "Wow, you are gorgeous," or "Your eyes here look amazing," or "I love your shirt, soo cute on you!" Its my natural instinct, as well as many other people's, certainly with pictures and videos, to comment things about how they look, which was weird to try and change. Aside from that, this month went okay. I made myself think more before complimenting someone, and made sure it was about something other than their apperence. Although it was interesting to change, I think it was somehthing that I'll be able to carry on for a while. I sugguest that other's try out this challenge, its a good one to do with your friends. Happy Mother's Day everyone, dont forget to share how much the women in your life mean to you! (: RESULTS FOR MARCH 2010: NO NEGATIVE TALK... Try to not say negative things to yourself or others. This month my challenge was to eliminate all negative self talk. Honestly, this wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be at the beginning of March. I don’t normally go around saying bad things about my appearance, or anyone else's for that matter, so I didn’t have too much trouble filtering what I said. Did you know that more that 80% of females in Canada have issues with their body and 20% of them are on some type of a diet? It’s crazy how people think that they need to change how they look, and how much some people really care about their looks. Lots of times negative comments are made to make the person feel better about themselves, (FYI, the person being the one saying the mean comment. Haha.) Why wouldn’t they just find another way to feel good? It’s so much nicer for everyone if we all say positive things and keep comments less about the outside of someone. Within my group of friends, especially this month, there were so little negative comments, and it was amazing. I felt great saying nice things, and I’m positive the others did too. As well as just stopping negative thoughts and comments, the girls and I all signed the 17 Body-Peace Treaty at seventeen.com. For those who do not already know, it’s basically a list of promises, such as, “I'll stop joining in when my friends compare and trash their own bodies.” It's a great commitment to make to yourself, and if you are signing with friends, to them too. I have decided to really focus on eliminating all of my "bad body habits," and to make myself and, those around me, feel as beautiful as possible. There are many great organizations, such as GCDA, that use real women as their models. Less media stress on looking a certain way will definitely decrease the amount of negative things said. I hope that one day tons more media will be using real people for their ads, commercials, magazines...etc. It will change the way everyone treats others, and more importantly, how they treat themselves! Wish me luck on my April challenge - "Discover The Beauty Beneath." RESULTS FOR FEBRUARY 2010: NO LABELS... Try to not style wear labels for the whole month! The challenge is to go without. This month, my challenge was to not wear any labels. Let me start off by saying that this is by far the hardest month so far. We all had a hard time avoiding wearing clothes with brand names or logos plastered across them, as lots of our clothes are from stores like Aeropostale, and Garage...etc, which are places that seem make sure that you know where the piece of clothing is from. All of my friends and I have multiple shirts that have 'American Eagle' or 'Hollister' or something else across the front, and if it doesnt directly say a brand name, there is almost always a recignisable logo. I know that some people buy certain clothes because of the brand that they are made buy, but most of the time I do not. For me, nice clothes are decided by the colours, materials and fitting of the make. While going through my clothes everyday, looking for no labels, I found that I have lots of clothes that I bought because of how much I liked them, but that they werenot suitable for this challenge at all. Lots of companies use labels to advertise about they're clothes, and spread word about their company. I think that although those are good reasons to use labels and brands, there should be more clothes without major logos. I made it about a week and a half without wearing anything with a big label on it, and it being out in the open, not covered up with layering of other clothes. Im actually quite proud of myself. I wish I could have gone longer, but honestly, I dont think I have enough clothes... Lol. I learned a lot from this month about my shopping habits. I think that I should look for less branded items, and cut back on my labeled clothing. It is going to be hard, but Im going to continue with this challenge for another little while. Its going to be worth it, seeing how much longer I can really go. Stay tuned for March! RESULTS FOR JANUARY 2010: NO HAIR STYLING... Try to not style your hair for the whole month. Some girls may just cut back, some may only style it for special occasions, but the challenge is to go without. MEGAN: This month my challenge was to eliminate hair styling and hair products from my everyday use. This meant no straightening my hair, no curling my hair, and not styling it when I got up in the morning. I was allowed to shower with shampoo and conditioner, and then either leave my hair down or have it in a ponytail. At the beginning of the month I guessed that this challenge was going to be hard… and I was right. Most normal days I will straighten my hair or certain sections of my hair so that they’re not wavy or weird looking, but I don’t usually spend a whole long time making my hair absolutely perfect. Aside from heat tools, I typically use lots of creams, sprays and other hair things, like straightening balm, frizz control cream, hairspray, and this shine stuff. I had to nix everything, and just stick to the basics, which at first was very difficult. I hated having to pretty much leave my hair the way it was before I left in the morning. I found myself wearing my hair up almost everyday for the first part of the month, but as it went on I almost got used to not using my things. Most of the girls did their best, just like me, to not style every morning, but a few girls do sports, like gymnastics, that really involves “perfect hair” for competitions, and sometimes even for practice. These few girls need their hair up in tight buns, with gel, hairspray and tons of bobby pins to keep it in, especially those with tough or curly hair. Aside from that, I think that most of us kept from doing our hair everyday, except for last week, when we had Crazy Hair Day at school, where we all had to show school sprit by crazy-ing up our hair. This, for most of us, was a tough challenge, but I think it showed that it’s okay to not look just right all the time, and if you have a bit of a messed up hair do, its just fine. I’m excited for the coming months challenge, No Labels. Wish me luck! (; RESULTS FOR DECEMBER 2009: MEDIA AWARENESS... This is a month to pay special attention to the media and see what kind of materialistic references to beauty we are bombarded with every day through TV, radio, magazines, billboards, signs and so on. See if the awareness makes you think twice! MEGAN: Happy New Year! This month my challenge was to be media aware. As a group, my friends and I looked out for different forms of media and thought about how they tend to influence everyone with beauty references. Especially around the holidays, there are tons of commercials on T.V., in magazines, on the radio, on billboards…etc. that are trying to get various people to buy certain products or services. Have you ever noticed that in lots of these advertisements the people are very pretty, wearing nice clothes, their makeup and hair is done, and they just don’t look normal? Many times advertising companies will use beautiful and happy models or celebrities to promote their products because then the consumers will be “Buying the lifestyle,” not just the product. What I mean by “Buying the lifestyle,” is that the customer is supposedly buying the emotions, looks and way of life from the commercials and models, by just purchasing the merchandise. Companies think that people will buy more products if the people are gorgeous looking in the ads. For example, one of the media pieces we found all around, was the Cover Girl makeup ad with Ellen Degeneres in it. The company used Ellen, a well-known and famous woman in our society, to promote their makeup because some consumers will believe that Ellen herself uses the products and likes them, so they should spend their money to buy them as well. Another example of the opposite, (using real people in advertising,) is the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty. Dove uses real women in their commercials, which seems to attract many people, and get them thinking, “Well, she is not the prettiest, skinniest or happiest person out there. Hmm, that is just like me.” This helps companies to get consumers to think about the product and actually buy it for the product its self and not the life you would apparently get. I think that Dove and other corporations using this approach are very smart and it will hopefully one day catch on, and many, many people will use this idea and have real women and men in advertising. My friends and I all agree that media really influences everyone and it may not just be the people in the ads, but more so what they are trying to sell and how many ads there really are out there. I mean, think about it, during one show on T.V., we all see tons of commercial selling makeup, clothes, and hair products that are created to make us more “beautiful.” Promoting these commercials just puts down those who don’t use that kind of makeup or shampoo, and could make them feel like they aren’t as attractive as they could be. I think if it were possible, we should just remove this kind of advertising and show how great everyone is just in their natural state. I really do pay more attention to advertising now than I did before, because I think it is important to see how fake everything is and to realize that I’m beautiful just the way I am, and I don’t need all the new products being promoted to make myself something I am not. Try and pay attention to the things advertised around you, and see how much of it is real and what is fake. Good luck in 2010 and Happy Holidays. :) NOVEMBER 2009: NO MAKEUP This month my challenge is to try to wear no makeup for the whole month. Some girls may just cut back, some may only wear it for special occasions, but the challenge is to go without. Hey everyone. My name is Megan, and this year I chose to do the beauty challenge, which will consist of small monthly challenges for me and my friends to take part in. For the month of November, we did the “No Makeup” challenge. Regularly, as a group of teen girls, we do wear makeup, but some of us more than others. At the beginning on the month, we all agreed that each of us would do our very best to eliminate or at least cut back on the makeup we use. It was tough at first, to stop and not reach for the mascara or eyeliner in the morning, but by the end of the month, we’ve learned to cut back. Not only did this help to point out that we dont need to wear makeup to 'look good', but it saved money because we didnt use anything for four whole weeks. Personally, I only wore makeup once or twice for all of November, which is pretty good. A few of the other girls, Maddie, Mikaela and Sophie, also only wore makeup a few times. I am very proud of me and my friends, because we learned to rely less on makeup. We are all looking forward to next month's challange, and we all hope that we can continue to do a great job though the rest of the months! |
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That's amazing! What a great idea! Good luck on future challenges!
Hey great job megan that is so cool
OMG that is one of my favourite quotes!! :o) good luck with your challenge :D
Thank youu Dinaa. :) I hope I can do just as great a job as all of the girls last year, and that you enjoy reading what I have to say.
Wait for my reveiw of the challenge up soon, and thank for commenting. <3
I can see why you are in the CCLC, whoa you do so much great stuff. I loved reading last years beauty Challenges I can't wait to read yours too! <3
Thanks for letting me know about this project. Sounds really interresting. Congrats!! Keep up the good work.
Love your Motto, a real good one to live by.
xoxo