Naughty in Name Only

Naughty in Name Only


By NICOLE PERLROTH | New York Times – Sun, 24 Mar, 2013 9:50 PM EDT



Nasty Gal is “the fastest-growing retailer in the …LOS ANGELES —


If ever there were a Cinderella of tech, Sophia Amoruso might be it.


In 2006, Ms. Amoruso was a 22-year-old community college dropout, living in her step-aunt’s cottage, working at an art school checking student IDs for $13 an hour. Then she started a side project, Nasty Gal, an eBay page that sold vintage women’s clothing.

Last year, Nasty Gal sold nearly $100 million of clothing and accessories — profitably.

For the last seven years, Ms. Amoruso has been courting a cult following of 20-something women. Nasty Gal has more than half a million followers on Facebook and more than 600,000 on Instagram. But it is not yet well known beyond that base. At fashion trade shows, the company’s name still gets strange looks.

“People say: ‘Nasty Gal? What’s that?’ ” Ms. Amoruso, now 28, said in an interview at her new headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. “I tell them, ‘It’s the fastest-growing retailer in the country.’ ”

Back in 2006, she toyed with the idea of going to photography school, but couldn’t stomach the debt. Instead, she quit her job and started an eBay page to sell some of the vintage designer items she found rummaging through Goodwill bins. She bought a Chanel jacket at a Salvation Army store for $8 and sold it for $1,000. She found Yves Saint Laurent clothing online on the cheap by Googling misspellings of the designer’s name, reasoning that anyone who didn’t know how to spell Yves Saint Laurent probably didn’t realize his value.

She styled, photographed, captioned and shipped each product herself and sold about 25 items a week. She named the eBay page “Nasty Gal” after the 1975 album by Betty Davis — not the smoky-eyed film star Bette Davis, but the unabashedly sexy funk singer and style icon Betty, whose brief marriage to the jazz legend Miles Davis inspired the song “Back Seat Betty.”

Ms. Amoruso curated her eBay page to match her own style, which on a recent rainy Friday included a floor-length trench coat, vintage rock T-shirt, no-nonsense bob and blood-red lipstick. Her look and attitude resonated with the type of young, body-confident women who would not be caught dead in Tory Burch.

She created a Myspace page to market Nasty Gal and garnered 60,000 “friends” by reaching out to fans of brands like Nylon, the music and fashion magazine, who she thought might appreciate Nasty Gal’s fierce aesthetic. Every week, her new finds ignited bidding wars among shoppers from Australia to Britain.

She began enlisting friends to model and photograph her products, which quickly outgrew her step-aunt’s cottage. She moved Nasty Gal’s headquarters to a 1,700-square-foot studio in Berkeley, Calif., in 2007, and eight months later moved again — this time to a 7,500-square-foot warehouse space in Emeryville.

Ms. Amoruso also outgrew eBay, which she said was a terrible platform to start a business. Competitors started flagging Nasty Gal for breaking the site’s rules by, for example, linking to Ms. Amoruso’s Myspace page. Fed up, she decided it was time to start ShopNastyGal.com. (At the time, NastyGal.com belonged to a pornography site. Nasty Gal now owns the domain.)

She recruited a friend from junior high school to build a Web site and taught herself to use Photoshop. She eventually abandoned Myspace for Facebook, where she tantalized fans with coming inventory, from cheap shrunken motorcycle jackets to high-end vintage Versace clothing.

She challenged her Facebook fans to come up with the best titles for vintage products and gave gift cards to the winners. She used models who were approachable and “looked like nice people, not dead people,” she said, and had to fire some when customers complained that they looked too skinny or annoyed.

That constant conversation with customers created a loyal following. Nasty Gal has no marketing team, but fans comment on its every Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest post and regularly post pictures of themselves in their Nasty Gal finds. A quarter of Nasty Gal’s 550,000 customers visit the site daily for six minutes; the top 10 percent return more than 100 times a month.

With Nasty Gal having made just shy of $100 million in revenue last year, analysts say they would expect a bigger audience.

“I would expect them to have a few million visitors a month,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester analyst. On the flip side, Ms. Mulpuru said Nasty Gal’s conversion rate must be significantly higher than the industry standard of 3 percent. “It speaks to an engaged audience,” she said. “They’ve figured out the marketing tool. That’s the real story.”

Ms. Amoruso knew Nasty Gal couldn’t grow by selling one-off vintage items forever; customers were asking why she didn’t have more sizes. So in 2008, she posted an ad on Craigslist for a buying assistant and hired Christina Ferrucci, the first person who answered.

The two experimented with buying vintage-inspired clothes from vendors in Los Angeles’s fashion district. Soon, the items were selling so quickly that Ms. Amoruso and Ms. Ferrucci were making the six-hour drive to Los Angeles every other week.

They ventured to the Project trade show in Las Vegas, where fashion brands and buyers convene every August, but higher-end brands weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of having their products sold by a brand called Nasty Gal. Many dismissed it as an online sex shop. The fact that the NastyGal.com domain was at that time still owned by a pornography site didn’t help matters.

Sam Edelman, the shoe brand, initially gave Ms. Amoruso the cold shoulder. She charged back an hour later, showed them Nasty Gal’s Web site on her iPhone and promised to deliver the brand some street cred. Sam Edelman acquiesced. That opened the door for a deal with Jeffrey Campbell, another shoemaker, which has become one of the most recognizable brands on the site. Nasty Gal fans will tell you Sophia Amoruso “made” Jeffrey Campbell, not the other way around.

A Jeffrey Campbell spokeswoman, Sharon Blackburn, said that the brand was well established before partnering with Ms. Amoruso, but that Nasty Gal created a new channel for its more provocative styles, like the “Lita,” a towering lace-up platform boot with a five-inch heel. “Not a lot of people got it, but Sophia loved it,” Ms. Blackburn said. “She bought it in every color and fabric, wore it herself and opened the door for other styles in our collection.”

By 2010, Nasty Gal started generating buzz among unlikely fans in Silicon Valley. Venture capital firms were pouring millions into e-commerce sites like ShoeDazzle.com, Kim Kardashian’s shoe subscription site, and BeachMint.

But the company had been making money from Day 1. “They would say, ‘We want to invest in a woman-owned business — it’s part of our investment thesis,’ ” Ms. Amoruso recalled of her discussions with several venture capitalists. Her retort: She didn’t want to be part of their “investment thesis” and didn’t need their money.

“I don’t think they got it,” she said. “It’s this bunch of guys sitting around saying, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s start a Web site and put Kim Kardashian’s face on it.’ ”

Ms. Amoruso moved Nasty Gal to Los Angeles in 2011, to be closer to her merchants and models. She shunned office space in Santa Monica, where ShoeDazzle and BeachMint are based, for less glamorous space downtown, where 20-something Nasty Gal employees in mesh crop tops, leggings and platform shoes stand out from the paralegals. (Shortly after the move, one employee was berated by a lawyer in the building who saw “Nasty Gal Creative Studio” and assumed it was a pornography studio.)

Last year, Ms. Amoruso, who had held on to 100 percent of her business, decided she was ready to hear what Sand Hill Road had to offer. She met with several venture capitalists but ultimately clicked with Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures, who had invested in e-commerce sites like Net-a-Porter, Etsy and Asos.

In March, Ms. Amoruso agreed to give Index a slice of equity for $9 million. But by August, things were moving so quickly — Nasty Gal was on track to quadruple its 2011 sales to $128 million — that she raised an additional $40 million from Index and used some of it to build a 500,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Shepherdsville, Ky. Nasty Gal now attracts more than six million visits a month, while e-commerce start-ups like ShoeDazzle and BeachMint are losing customers and executives.

Bigger competitors are taking notes. Urban Outfitters recently contacted Ms. Amoruso about a potential acquisition, according to people briefed on the discussions. Asked about that, Ms. Amoruso said only, “We’re talking.”

Naysayers in Silicon Valley think she should consider the acquisition. Some venture capitalists who would not speak on the record — perhaps because they did not have the chance to invest — say Nasty Gal is playing on a short-term fashion trend that will be difficult to sustain on the public market.

“They’re the hot new thing, but I do think it’s risky,” said Ms. Mulpuru, the Forrester analyst. “With this type of hype, either they are looking for a big fat acquisition or a blockbuster I.P.O.”

Ms. Amoruso is hardly ignorant of the possibility that it could all fall apart. Nasty Gal’s motto is, “Nasty Gals do it better.” But her personal motto is, “Only the paranoid survive.”

At 16, Ms. Amoruso tattooed the Virgin Records logo on her arm. Last year, she enjoyed a small Cinderella moment when she got to show it to Richard Branson. She recently bought a Porsche — with cash — and is remodeling her dream home.

But, she said, the Cinderella story ends here. “It’s been very charmed, but I’m not willing to rest on my laurels,” she said. “It’s only going to get harder to keep building from here.”


http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/naughty-name-only-015034664.html

The 10 Biggest Reasons Men Resent Their Wives

By Woman s Day | Love + Sex – Mon, 18 Mar, 2013 

Avoid resentment in your marriage with these expert pointersBy Kerry Miller

Despite the picture-perfect impressions we get from upbeat Facebook posts or boastful holiday letters, even the healthiest marriages aren't 100% free of conflict. At some point, virtually everyone feels wronged by a romantic partner. Bob Navarra, PsyD, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), says that those feelings aren't what throw a marriage off course-it's how couples handle them. "While it may be frustrating that the toothpaste cap was left off, happy couples talk about these small things," he says. But when those emotions are swept under the rug, a more toxic variety of negativity begins to fester: resentment. Here, marriage experts share some of the most common reasons husbands resent their wives and how to protect your relationship. Photo by Getty Images.

1. Not fighting fair.
Happy couples don't necessarily fight less, Dr. Navarra says; they just fight better, by "describing their own feelings and needs rather than labeling their partner as faulty." And the ball is probably in your court for that. Research shows that wives are more likely to bring up problems for discussion, while husbands are more likely to withdraw at the first sign of an argument. When this keeps happening, women tend to start conversations on a negative note, which only makes things worse. Instead of resorting to personal attacks-"You're such a slob!" "We're going to be late because of you!"-which lead to defensiveness, Dr. Navarra recommends sticking to "I-statements," such as "When (this happens), I feel (frustrated, angry). What I needed was..."

Related: Discover 9 fights you should have with your husband.

2. Treating him like a child.
"A big issue I see in couples is a man resenting his partner because he feels she talks down to him," says Mary Kelleher, LMFT. This can leave him feeling "less-than," and nothing triggers resentment faster than inadequacy. So avoid threatening his independence-the way pressuring him to go for a promotion so he'll bring home more money may be perceived-suggests couples therapist Vagdevi Meunier, PsyD. "No one wants to feel 'managed' by a spouse," Dr. Meunier says

3. Involving other people in your marriage.
What you might think of as harmless complaining to friends and family can actually break your husband's trust. It threatens the safety of the "couple bubble" you've created together. "Men find this humiliating and hurtful," says Norene Gonsiewski, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a couples' therapist at the Portland Relationship Center in Oregon. If you really need to vent, consider talking to a doctor or therapist to keep things confidential.

Related: Check out 10 things husbands should never do.

4. Not showing appreciation for thing he does right.
"Men will never ask for it," Gonsiewski says, but regular doses of praise are important. "They need to hear that their wives are proud of them." Scott Haltzman, MD, author of The Secrets of Happily Married Women, notes that men tend to be more action-oriented than women, which means they show affection in different ways. "He may empty the dishwasher as a way of saying he cares about you." Haltzman's suggestion: "Pay attention to what he does, and let him know you notice."

5. Withholding sex as punishment.
While women generally need emotional intimacy to make love, men express emotional intimacy through sex, says Marla Taviano, author of Is that All He Thinks About? When a wife turns down sex, in her husband's mind, "she's turning him down as a person," explains Taviano. Using sex as a bargaining chip to get your needs meet isn't negotiating-it's emotional blackmail, which can alienate him. "Withholding sex may make your partner feel less love from you and give you less love in return," says Dr. Haltzman.

Related: Learn 8 secrets of sexually satisfied couples.

6. Trying to change him.
"Every person can change, but it's better to focus on our own changes, rather than our spouse's behaviors," says Anne Ziff, LMFT, author of Marrying Well. And yet, some women see marriage as a starting point for a "husband makeover." This isn't all bad-studies show that married men tend to eat healthier and have fewer problems with drugs and alcohol than single guys-but avoid creating a relationship in which your husband can't be himself. "When a man feels his home is not his castle, and he can't just be a guy-whether it's walking around in his boxers or letting out a burp-he'll feel like he's been put in a box where he has to act prim and proper all the time," Dr. Meunier says. Sometimes, it's smarter to let the little things slide.

7. Making important decisions without his input.
Research shows that money is a top source of disagreements among married couples, even those with bigger budgets. In a lot of ways, money equals power, and balancing power is important to harmonious relationships, Meunier says. Whether you're considering booking a vacation or buying a dishwasher, your partner deserves a say. The same goes for decisions that affect how you and your husband spend your time, such as inviting company over for dinner or signing up your kids for soccer. Although it may seem simpler to beg for forgiveness instead of getting him on board, unilateral decision making can drive you two apart.

8. Not giving him the chance to be the kind of dad he wants to be.
Mothers often parent differently than fathers, but not necessarily better. For instance, some studies show that parenting styles more common with dads, such as rough-and-tumble play, offer children unique developmental benefits. "Men's resentment grows as their children develop with gaps in their competency and independence, two attributes men rate highly," Gonsiewski says. "When a woman doesn't trust her husband to parent she sends a message that he's wrong and only she's right." Instead, "reinforce your husband for the positive contributions he makes to your children's lives," Dr. Haltzman recommends.

9. Acting jealous when he looks at other women.
Men are visual creatures, Dr. Meunier says, so it's not surprising that a typical heterosexual man would notice a good-looking woman. "Women who understand this and don't take it personally minimize unproductive fights about jealousy." When a wife overreacts to a situation, her husband will likely feel defensive, and eventually, resentful. Dr. Meunier's advice? "Chill out." Responding to a visual cue isn't cause for worry, she says-curious comments or behaviors, like dropping your hand to head across the room to talk to another woman, could signify a lack of commitment to you.

10. Expecting immediate forgiveness after you apologize.
Studies show that seeking and granting forgiveness greatly contributes to marital satisfaction and longevity. But beware of empty words. While apologizing manages conflict, Dr. Navarra says a simple "I'm sorry" often isn't enough. To truly earn her husband's forgiveness, a wife needs to show that she understands why her husband is upset. Dr. Haltzman recommends being specific about what you're apologizing for, accepting responsibility for what you did, acknowledging that you what you did was harmful and lastly, asking what you can do to make it up to him. "If you've gotten to the first three steps cleanly, most men will say 'forget about it' to the last question," Dr. Haltzman says.  

Should a woman take her husband's name after marriage?

Should a woman refuse to take her husband's name after marriage?

By Flannery Dean | Chatelaine – Fri, 15 Mar, 2013 11:15 AM EDT

Getty Images

Should a woman hang on to her maiden name after she's said 'I do'? 

It's a debate that's been raging for more than half a century. Over the years, many young women have made the decision-often times to great scorn-to maintain their surnames after tying the knot.

But while keeping one's maiden name ultimately comes down to personal choice-you either want to keep the last name you were born with or you don't-it's also a politically charged decision. Strangely, it's also a minority decision as the majority of women, it seems, still choose to take their partner's surnames (others choose to compromise, creating those tongue-twisting, hybrid hyphenated last names).

In an essay for The Guardian (via jezebel.com) writer Jill Filipovic argues that women should collectively abandon the tradition of taking a man's surname once and for all.
"But why, in 2013, does getting married mean giving up the most basic marker of your identity?" asks Filipovic.

She goes on to punch holes in much of what passes for the reasons why women choose to take their husband's names, a list that runs the gamut from 'he has a better last name' to 'I want my family to share a last name'.

For Filipovic, these reasons are just so much hot air. At bottom, she argues, they're justifications for not challenging the status quo.

Filipovic believes trading one's last name for another shouldn't be celebrated as an act of unity-she mentions the pervasive and patently false idea that women who keep their last names are less committed than those who don’t-but rather as a loss.

"Jill Filipovic is my name and my identity. Jill Smith is a different person," she writes, adding later that such a loss does not come without consequence to one's sense of self.
"It lessens the belief that our existence is valuable unto itself, and that as individuals we are already whole."

Be good to yourself...

Be good to yourself...

Fallen to the ground
It seems like I'm whole again
What can they do
I've learnt to take it
If only I knew then
The world is turning night and day
So love let it shine away
Reach out and touch the sun
Reach out and feel again
You've gotta reach out
Again
This situation,
Coming to the end
Now the light is back again

5 surprising secrets for a flatter stomach

RealBuzz – Thu, 14 Feb, 2013

Woman flat stomach and how to get a flat stomach tips

Stop doing so many crunches

Most people think that to achieve a flat, toned stomach you need to do a thousand crunches every morning before work, but that’s just not true. The surprising secret is that doing lots of ab specific exercises will only help you tone that area on a short-term basis, if at all.

To get the flat stomach you want, you have to work your entire core, building up its strength and flexibility. Doing exercises like Pilates or stability ball work will help you do this. Working your core is the key to achieving a flat stomach because it works all of the muscles in your stomach area, such as the rectus abdominis, your internal and external obliques and your transversus abdominis.

Stock up on whole grains

A study that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discovered a surprising secret for a flatter stomach. The study gave participants a healthy diet to eat, consisting of fruit, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, meat and fish. However, they gave one set of participants wholegrain foods to eat and the other set of participants refined grain foods.

At the end of the study those participants who had eaten the wholegrain foods had lost more weight from their stomachs than those who ate the refined grain foods. The researchers believe that the participants who ate more whole grains and ate less refined carbs lost more from their waistlines because this change in diet mobilised people’s fat stores because of a shift in their glucose and insulin response. If you want to swap refined grains for whole grains, eat less yeast-based breads, pasta and cakes or cookies and eat more foods such as oats (which contains as many antioxidants as broccoli and spinach), brown rice and wheat berries.

Get some sleep

It may seem as though sleep has nothing to do with your dream of having a flat stomach, but it does. If you don’t get enough sleep then your hormone levels change, which can make you feel hungry and can also make you feel less satisfied once you have eaten. This can lead to overeating. Plus those late nights watching TV or going out with friends gives you more time to snack and reach for unhealthy foods.

So, how much sleep should you be getting? The Mayo Clinic advises adults that they should sleep for no less than seven hours a night. If you struggle to get this much sleep make sure you are exercising regularly, that you don’t nap during the day and that  you eat foods that contain tryptophan (an amino acid that helps you sleep), such as chicken, milk and yoghurt.

Time your meals

If you eat food quickly then you might find that you are eating more than you actually need to. Slowing down the pace you eat meals at will help you to achieve a flatter stomach because you will eat smaller portions. Also a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that eating quickly did not allow the hormone that makes you feel full to kick in. Therefore when eating quickly you are far more likely to eat more than is necessary.

To stop eating so quickly you should make sure you eat at your dining table and do not eat in front of the TV. Concentrating and savouring what you are tucking into will help slow down the rate you eat at. You could also set a timer and try to consciously slow down so that you eat the last bites of your food when the timer goes off. Also, a study found that soft lighting and gentle music helped participants eat less quickly so you could always dim the lights and put on some Enya too.

Tuck into some enzymes

An enzyme that will help you achieve a flatter stomach is called bromelain and it can be found in pineapples. The bromelain enzyme digests protein and is called a proteolytic enzyme. It is useful for those who want a flatter stomach because it aids the digestion of foods that are high in fibre, such as beans or vegetables. By aiding the digestion of these foods this enzyme eases bloating, which is a major obstacle that stands between many people and their flat stomachs.

If you want to get a flat stomach and think the bromelain enzyme might help you to achieve this then you should eat some fresh pineapple before a meal to aid your digestion. The enzyme can also be taken as a supplement. Read more on realbuzz.com...
10 steps to your best body
Top 5 flat-belly foods

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/5-surprising-secrets-flatter-stomach-104807291.html

Eat Less Sugar

eat less sugar 

{you are sweet enough already}

Where there is Great Love there are always Miracles

Where there is Great Love there are always Miracles.
— Will Cather

Is the Carrie Bradshaw Effect over? Female TV characters start taking responsibility for themselves

By Anne T. Donahue | omg! TV – Tue, 6 Nov, 2012


Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw on "Sex and the City." (HBO)


The past year has seen a new type of female character emerge. Unlike the Carrie Bradshaw effect of the late '90s and early 2000s, TV's fictional women are no longer glamorizing dysfunctional relationships or using retail therapy to numb emotional pain. True, characters like Mindy Lahiri ("The Mindy Project"), Ann Perkins ("Parks and Recreation"), and Jess Day ("New Girl") make their share of mistakes and poor decisions, but they don't shy away from their behaviour.


Unlike Carrie, these female characters take responsibility for their actions and handle distressing situations like adults. In this decade, the women on television control their own lives.


While "Sex and the City's" Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) made waves in the '90s for embracing an active sex life -- a trait Mindy, Ann, and Jess all share -- her irresponsible spending, penchant for labels, and relationship with Mr. Big (a man who mistreated her for years, yet whom she ended up marrying), made her the victim of her own actions. Yes, at some point, some people overspend, and some people find themselves with a partner who doesn't respect them, but unlike today's fictional women, Carrie was defined by those situations. By the second "Sex and the City" movie, Carrie kissed another man, and in response to the news, Mr. Big buys her a diamond ring to solve the problem.



Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins on "Parks and Recreation." (NBC)


On "Parks and Recreation," however, Ann (Rashida Jones) doesn't have this luxury. In the fourth episode of the current season, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) confronts Ann after noticing she adopts the personality and hobbies of any man she has a relationship with. Instead of a snide remark said at brunch (à la "Sex and the City"), the two friends actually discuss the problem, prompting Ann to re-evaluate her approach to boyfriends, and how important it is to be yourself.



Zooey Deschanel as Jess on "New Girl," and Mindy Kaling as Mindy on "The Mindy Project." (Fox)


The same can be said for "The Mindy Project's" Mindy (Mindy Kaling) and "New Girl's" Jess (Zooey Deschanel). Mindy's decision to keep up a one-sided relationship with her coworker is immediately called out by her best friend, so she instead begins pursuing men who treat her better. Meanwhile, Jess' go-to pal may be her roommate, Nick (Jake Johnson), but the two have countless confrontations about relationship choices and self-destructive behaviour. Case in point: now that Jess is unemployed, her friends have been consistently supporting her job search and keeping her motivated when she begins to feel down.




AnnaSophia Robb as a young Carrie Bradshaw on "The Carrie Diaries." (The CW)


However, this shift might not be permanent. With the premiere of "The Carrie Diaries" -- a "Sex and the City" prequel -- set for early 2013 on The CW, another generation of girls will be subjected to the franchise's "labels and love" ethos. Yes, some women like designers and others prioritize dating, but to define women by those things is limiting and dangerous, especially to young women. Shows like "Parks and Recreation," "The Mindy Project," and "New Girl" portray women as interesting and three-dimensional -- as actual human beings. They have real relationships with their friends, where bad behaviour is called out, and successes are celebrated. And while they aren't perfect, these women strive to fix their problems as opposed to shopping them away.


"The Carrie Diaries" may work to portray their characters as more than just PG-13 rated versions of their adult selves, but it might also perpetuate those dangerous traits that audiences are only now starting to tire of.


http://ca.omg.yahoo.com/blogs/omg-tv/carrie-bradshaw-effect-over-female-tv-characters-start-193247543.html

Child Bride Has Marriage Annulled -- Laxmi Sargara is Our Hero of the Day

At an age when most kids are learning to walk, Laxmi Sargara was already married. Her husband, Rakesh, was just three-years-old when family sealed the deal on their fate. She was one.

Now seventeen years later the couple have set a history-making precedent by having their marriage annulled. But the real hero of this story is Laxmi, now 18, who took remarkably brave steps to reverse the archaic tradition and opened the door for more child brides to follow. 

Though technically illegal in India, poor families living in rural areas often rely on these types of partnerships, using kids as pawns in order to provide more financial stability to those who can't afford to feed their children long-term. The fall-out is hardest felt for child brides, plucked from their parents' homes in their teens and forced to live with the husband they wed as a toddler and his family. The girls are expected to play the role of obedient wife and daughter-in-law, and in some instances, are beaten into submission by members of their new family.  

Just days ago, Laxmi's was informed of her own marriage obligations, promised almost two decades before by her Rajasthani elders, and given a move-in deadline of April 24 from her in-laws.

"I was unhappy about the marriage. I told my parents who did not agree with me, then I sought help," Sargara told AFP.

She reached to a social worker in Jodhpur who advocates for children's rights through an organization called the Sarathi Trust. The social worker contacted the groom, who was prepared to go through with family arrangement. After some persuading, he finally changed his mind and agreed to an annulment, influenced by the fact that he'd be marrying a woman risking everything to live without him.

"It is the first example we know of a couple wed in childhood wanting the marriage to be annulled, and we hope that others take inspiration from it," Kriti Bharti, the social worker who orchestrated the annulment, told AFP. 

A joint legal document signed by both Rakesh and Laxmi made it official and provided a road map for other young brides to do the same.

"Now I am mentally relaxed and my family members are also with me," said Laxmi, who beamed as she held up the document for photographers. She plans to continue her education in hopes of landing a job so she can maintain her independence. But Laxmi's newfound freedom comes with risk.

In India, where an estimated 50 percent of girls are married before they're 18, opponents of arranged child marriages can face serious threats, including gang rape, beatings and maiming. On the same day as Laxmi's annulment became official, protesters trying to stop a mass child wedding in Rajasthan were attacked and injured by villagers. When a 13-year-old refused to wed her arranged husband in 2009, her parents withheld her food for two weeks. Amazingly, the young girl prevailed and gained international attention and support for her stance. This week Laxmi moved the needle even further; hers is the first legally-binding child marriage annulment in India's history. 

Child marriages are a worldwide phenomenon, particularly in rural areas with high poverty rates and closely-guarded ancient traditions. In parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, The Middle East and even the U.S. underage children are forced into marriages at the behest of their families. In recent years, American officials have cracked down on fundamentalist polygamist sects in Utah and Texasknown to pair adult grooms with child brides. Other countries provide less legal clout needed to protect young girls. In Yemen where, there is no punishment for families who marry off an underage daughter, about half the country's brides are under 15. In Saudi Arabia, there is no minimum age for marriage at all. An 8-year old girl found this out in 2009, when the Saudi courts denied her annulment request. At the time, her husband was 58.


http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/child-bride-has-marriage-annulled----laxmi-sargara-is-our-hero-of-the-day.html

Warning: "Comfortable " Spring Shoes Can Be Bad for Your Feet

By The Editors at RealAge | Healthy Living – Sat, 21 Apr, 2012 

By Deborah Wilburn

Those fancy flip-flops might be hurting your feet.

Spring is here, and so are chic ballet flats, flip-flops, and sky-high platform sandals. They're comfortable shoes, and trendy, too, but are they good for your feet?
Not so much, says Dawn Olsen Figlo, MD, a certified foot surgeon in New York City. Even though many women think flats are a foot-friendly alternative, "ballet slippers are the worst shoe anyone can wear," she says. "There's no support whatsoever and the ankle can turn in too much or turn out."

Easy fix for foot pain

Does that rule out flip-flops, too? "It's not great to be in a super-flat shoe," says Figlo. "It overstretches the plantar fascia -- the tissue that covers the bottom of the foot -- and can cause plantar fasciitis, which is an inflammation of that tissue." In terms of flip-flops, "the cheap ones with a flimsy strap and no support throw your body off [balance]," she says. Your toes need to grip the shoe in order to keep it on, which strains your foot.
Her recommendation for footwear that won't hurt your feet? Anything with a heel no higher than 2 inches. "If you must wear heels, alternate them each day with a lower shoe with a little arch that provides support," says Figlo.

Destress with a soothing foot massage
Trendy shoes that Figlo does like? Platforms. "You do lose some stability, but as far as the foot biomechanics go, they're not so bad because the front of the foot is lifted as well."
Shoes on her forever thumbs-down list? "Pointy-toed shoes are horrible," Figlo declares. Whether they're high-heeled or low, pointy-toed shoes cause toes to curl in, which leads to painful (and unattractive) bunions and hammertoes.

Find the best walking shoe
One final footwear tip: Spray your shoes daily with antifungal spray. "There's a high incidence of athlete's foot infections in the summer since you're sweating in your shoes and not wearing socks," Figlo says. "Fungus thrives in dark, moist environments. " And for the pedicure-obsessed: "Don't fool with the cuticle. It's the seal that protects the toes from fungus and bacteria. If you break that seal you expose your feet to toe nail fungus and other problems." 

Transgender man fights $3,400 hysterectomy bill

CBC – Mon, 23 Apr, 2012 

A transgender man in Nova Scotia has filed a human rights complaint after he was handed a $3,400 bill for a hysterectomy that he claims was medically necessary.

In an exclusive interview with the CBC, Jessiah MacDonald said the province's Medical Services Insurance is charging him for sexual reassignment surgery because it doesn't cover that operation.

MacDonald, 24, had the surgery in 2010. He insists in the time leading up to the operation that he was never told he would have to pay.

"I felt it was wrong because despite my gender, I still have pieces of my body and if a piece of my body gets sick, I expect it to be treated as any other piece."
Born Jessica MacDonald, Jessiah always felt different growing up. At 18, he told his family he wanted to be a man and started taking testosterone pills.
Medical problems began. MacDonald went to a gynecologist after experiencing abdominal pain.

"The gynecologist had mentioned during the consult that I had a small uterus and she could feel multiple polyps during the internal exam, and that was sufficient enough for her to suggest a hysterectomy. But there was no mention then that it was only if I was female. There was no mention in the nine months between that and the surgery date."
Several other women in his family, including his mother, had hysterectomies before they turned 30, MacDonald said.

"The gynecologist said I had two options to deal with the symptoms I was having. The first would be to take birth control to raise my estrogen levels but she ruled that out as an option because I take testosterone. I'm a man. And the second option was the abdominal hysterectomy, which was her suggestion."
In October 2010, MacDonald went to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and had the operation.

He said after he woke up, his doctor gave him a bill for $3,400. He said he was stunned.
"I was fairly angry and I'm sure that was apparent as it was on my face. I'm fairly certain I started crying before they left the room and they couldn't have been in my room for more than 10 minutes tops. It was more like, 'Here's your bill, we'll help you pack your stuff … please get out.'"

A week later, MacDonald said he discovered that MSI considered his operation sexual reassignment surgery.

"Once I got back home, I ended up having to take the staples out myself because no one could guarantee that the followup care would be covered as well," he said.
MacDonald said it was never his intention to have a hysterectomy for sexual reassignment. Full reassignment involves a series of reconstructive surgeries.
MacDonald hired lawyer Kathryn Dumke, who is transgender herself, and filed a human rights complaint against MSI.

"I have never heard and I don't think anybody has ever heard of a case where a condition needed treatment and the treatment was denied because MSI questioned that it wasn't medically necessary," Dumke said.

MacDonald and Dumke want MSI to cover the surgery and change its policy so transgender people can have a hysterectomy if medically necessary.
"Someone's got to talk about it because if I don't stand up and say this is what happened to me and this is why it was wrong, then what if it happens to somebody else?" MacDonald said.
The case could be heard by a human rights tribunal if no agreement is reached. The two sides have communicated, Dumke said, but at this point it looks like the case will go to a hearing.
The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness would not comment because the case is before the commission.

However, the department confirmed that this is the first time that a transgender person has complained about not being covered for a hysterectomy.
MacDonald's doctor is out of the country and was unavailable to comment.

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/transgender-man-fights-hysterectomy-bill-103059137.html

10 Ways to Age Backwards

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/10-ways-to-age-backwards.html
Real Beauty – Wed, 28 Mar, 2012 3:48 PM EDT

Hold on to your youth with these tips and tricks for younger-looking skin.

#1: Eat Seaweed

Certain undersea delicacies, like seaweed, have a composition similar to blood plasma and are among the richest sources of minerals and nutrients. Seaweed also minimizes signs of aging by detoxifying skin and fighting free radicals. If you don't want to munch on salty seaweed, introduce it into your diet with capsules.

#2: Get Enough Sleep

No matter how much makeup you apply, your skin won't look good without enough sleep. Skin needs this down time to repair and rejuvenate itself, so turn off all your digital gadgets at night.

#3: Don't Stress

Studies show that stressing out practically etches lines on your face (as if you don't have enough to worry about). Finding a few moments of solace everyday can add years to your life-and money to your bank account (think about how much you'd spend on Botox otherwise).

#4: Go Sugar-Free

Or at least avoid it whenever you can. Excessive sugar reacts with proteins in your skin and speeds up the clock.

Read More: 33 Anti-Aging Foods

#5: Try this DIY Toning Mask

Makes 1 Application. You'll need: Juice from 1/2 a lemon (strained), 1 egg white.

Beat together the egg white and lemon juice for 3 minutes. *Apply directly to your face, avoiding the eyes.* Leave on for 30 minutes.* Rinse off with warm water.*

#6: Eat A Lot of Protein

Feed your complexion by eating plenty of protein, which plays a vital role in the production of collagen and elastin -- essential ingredients for younger-looking skin. Good sources: meat, fish, eggs, cheese, beans, soy and lentils.

#7: Use Overnight Remedies

Double-duty your shut-eye time and use overnight products that contain ingredients like Vitamins B, C, and P to stimulate cell turnover and circulation. The result? Puffiness and overpigmentation are reduced by morning.

Read More: The Best Overnight Skin Treatments

#8: Take Your Vitamins

Taking oral supplements of vitamins A, C and E help prevent some damage from sunlight and aging.

#9: Know Which Foods Are Good For Your Skin

Eat more good-for-your-skin foods like salmon, almonds, and berries.

#10: Avoid Cigarette Smoke

It's not enough just to quit smoking, second-hand cigarette smoke also causes premature wrinkles. The oxygen-deprived (and toxin-filled) air triggers enzymes that destroy collagen.

For more from Real Beauty:

• 21 Amazing Celebrity Hair-Dye Jobs
• 5 Best Over-40 Beauty Tips
• 33 Surprising Things That Ruin Your Skin
• 101 Tips for Your Best Skin Ever
• Beauty Gossip and Insider Tips Galore!

The Photoshop Is Closed: New Tool Measures Amount of Airbrushing

Now you can visit a gallery of photoshopped photos of celebrities...

http://fashionindie.com/the-photoshop-is-closed-new-tool-measures-amount-of-airbrushing/angie-2/#gallery

Beautiful Angie before and after Photoshop

InFAUXmercial Must-See: Fotoshop by Adobé

(Edited by Jessica Lapidos on January 17 2012)


For those who believe in what they see on TV!


Maybe she’s born with it? No freaking way. Odds are, which ever celeb you’re looking at has been treated with the fashion industry’s most highly prescribed and trusted beauty product: Fotoshop by Adobé. This (totally fake) infomercial forthe beauty fix-all is hilarious, informative and slightly disturbing. Call now and you get the Spot Healing Brush, Hue/Saturation and Liquefy tools absolutely free! 

So which makes more sense? Banning celebs that use too much photoshop? Or equalizing the playing field with everyone’s now-photoshopped Facebook profile?


This commercial isn't real, neither are society's standards of beauty.
Full post here with behind the scenes: http://jesserosten.com/2012/fotoshop-by-adobe



By the way, did you know: photoshop was created in 1989? Yup!