I modeled a great deal as a teenager, but I don't fit the mold set by the modeling industry. I am not the willow six-foot-tall blond you often see sashaying down the runway. I am 5'5" and due to childhood illness I have been completely bald since I was nine years old. My hair loss is due to Alopecia Areata, an auto-immune disorder for which there...

"I learned the truth at 17, that love was meant for beauty queens…" played from our car radio in 1975. As a scrawny 12-year-old, I believed that if I was beautiful, my life would be perfect. Fast forward four years - at 16, I was chosen from more than 200 girls to go to Paris and become a fashion model. My agent told me, "Your rail-thin body,...

Did you know that women are twice as likely as men to diet, even though men are more likely to be "overweight?" Or that black women diet as frequently as or more frequently than white women? And that a quarter of all pregnant women are actually distressed by weight gain? The fact is, eating disorders have no bounds. Although the majority struggling...

My father’s suicide catapulted me into a time of deep grief, a time when I questioned all I thought I knew about God, while clinging to Him daily for the strength to get through the pain. In those first shock-filled days after I heard the news that my father had hung himself in the basement of our home, my heart would scream: "NO, NO, don’t...

Not getting enough sleep can leave you tired and grumpy. Many car accidents can be traced to drowsy drivers. Too many sleepless nights can affect your job, your family and your personality. If your are one of millions who average less than 7 hours of sleep a night, try to make more time to rest. Exercise - not right before bed, but an earlier...

“What’s in here?” Susan asked. We were shifting some of my belongings and among them was a storage box with the word ‘Herman’ scrawled across the top. “Take a peek,” Denise advised with a twinkle in her eye. “Eek! There’s something furry in there!” Susan screamed as she dropped the box. As Denise laughed, I picked up...