Let the glossy spreads have their heart-stopping, head-turning kind of beauty. Give me the heart-filling beauty instead. Jolie laide, that's what I would choose. Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.

Maybe we don't have the same definition of about what's beautiful. So define it. Define true beauty.

He knew me in all the ways that truly mattered: the shape of my fears, the contours of my dreams.

You would be surprised what two hours of daily exercise and five hundred stomach crunches can do for you.

But even quashed rebellions leave us different. Because freedom may be a forbidden fruit in tyrannies, but once tasted, it is unforgettable.

What would it be like to look in the mirror and actually accept what you see? Not loathe the reflection, or despise it, or be resigned to it? But to like it?

That's exactly why nature always trumps gardens. Gardens are just reality pruned of chaos. What doesn't work you rip out.