My Day at the Glamour Awards

Last month, I joined many extraordinary women in celebrating Glamour Magazine’s 20th anniversary. Since 1990, Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards have saluted the world’s most outstanding achievers. If we have learned one thing in two decades of honoring extraordinary women—from Madonna to Madeleine Albright, from college presidents to the comedians of Saturday Night Live—it’s that with the courage of her convictions, a woman can do anything.

Glamour’s twentieth-anniversary Women of the Year Awards gala was held at Carnegie Hall. In celebration of this milestone, I attended the Love Your Life Conference, which explored the experiences of women who are breaking boundaries at work, in life, and everywhere.

Women today are more ambitious than ever. As we make giant strides in our careers, we are also re-defining the meaning of success.

A panel of six influential women were asked questions about their successes: What does it mean to have a satisfying work life right now? What obstacles do women still face? How can we best balance the demands of the office or career with our responsibilities at home? Who are the new role models for success, and what do their lives and experiences teach us?

The moderator was Deborah Roberts of ABC’s 20/20. She also serves as a substitute anchor on Good Morning America, and is married to Al Roker.

The panelists were: Bobbi Brown, Arianna Huffington, Padma Lakshimi, Dylan Lauren and Anna Sui.

Bobbi Brown is the world renowned owner of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and a bestselling author. She told me that she launched her line 20 years ago with just 10 lipsticks. Her cosmetics are now sold in 56 countries.

Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of 13 books.

Padma Lakshimi, the host of Bravo TV”s Emmy-winning Top Chef is also the author of two books and has appeared in films.

Dylan Lauren, founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Bar, is the daughter of clothing designer Ralph Lauren. She started her career running an events company where her work introduced her to a variety of confections that inspired her namesake store.

Anna Sui, a fashion designer who started making her own clothes at the age of four, is now featured in  300 stores in 30 countries.

What all these successful women have in common is that they knew that everything could not get done to perfection. Once they gave up the idea that their lives would be balanced, they went about life and juggled as best as they could. It is the realization of this fact that gets them through the stressful times. They all agreed that family needs came first.

The second part of the afternoon at the conference was about body image. There’s a body-image revolution playing out on he runway, TV airwaves and pages of magazines everywhere. The message is that when it comes to beauty, no one size or standard applies.

Women are taking note of this. Last fall, when Glamour published a photo of a gorgeous plus-size model with a decidedly not-flat belly, the response was staggering. “This photo made me want to shout from the rooftops,” wrote one Massachusetts reader.

In the second panel of the afternoon, notable women from the worlds of health, food and fashion discussed what is beautiful now, and why a healthy body image is worth fighting for.

The panelists included: Dr. Ann Kearny-Cooke, Bethany Frankel, Paulina Porizkova and Crystal Renn.

Dr. Ann Kearny-Cooke made the most sense to me out of the panelists. She is an authority on women’s body-image issues, the Director of the Cinncinati Psychotherapy Institute and the author of Change Your Mind, Change Your Body. She also serves on the Dove Self-Esteem Fund Advisory Board and leads workshops across the country on body image.

Bethany Frankel is the author of the New York Times best selling Naturally Thin and The Skinnygirl Dish. She was on The Real Housewives of New York City and now has her own show, Bethany Getting Married.

Paulina Porizkova, a well known model and author, rocketed to modeling stardom after she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1984. She has appeared in magazines such as Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar. She has been the face of Estee Lauder, and was featured in campaigns of Escada and Maybelline New York. She is the author of a children’s book and A Model Summer, a novel about the fashion industry. She mentioned that she never knew that she was beautiful until she was discovered as a model.

Crystal Renn is a model and author. At the start of her career, Crystal lost almost 90 pounds to fit the industry’s standard for waiflike figures. In 2003 she finally embraced her natural curves, began a career as a plus-sized model, and soared to international success. Besides being featured in all of the major magazines, she wrote an autobiography, Hungry, in 2009.

This symposium opened my eyes to what is going on in the beauty industry today, and to what means many women will go to to look like a model or an actress. Remember, before you love anything on your skin, you must love the skin you are in.
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Sylvia Hamowy is the owner of Reflections Cosmetics. She is a professional makeup artist, beauty editor and former radio show host. She is featured in the International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs.