Glam or Ma'am?

Don't you love when magazine companies send you one or two free copies of their publication in hopes that you will buy a subscription?  I'm a sucker for a freebie, and an even bigger sucker for a juicy read. I used to get trials from cute shopping and style magazines like LUCKY, IN STYLE or GLAMOUR. At some point those free trials switched from "glam" to "ma'am" mags.  I now receive titles like PREVENTION, WOMAN'S DAY, and most recently one called MORE. I usually chuck these in the trash immediately. I think that I'm afraid if I actually flip through one of them, I might find out I have more in common with the topics and styles inside them than I willing to admit.

Last week, a free copy of the magazine titled MORE came addressed to me.  Hmm... MORE.  More fashion?  More beauty tips?  More insight?  I like more.  Maybe this will be good. Michelle Obama was on the front cover, which did make me a little fearful that this was once again a magazine for mature ladies. But she is the First Lady, and she does have a keen fashion sense, so I got tricked into flipping through it.  The first several pages were big, bright advertisements laid out beautifully just like all the young, hip magazines have.  OPI, Cover Girl, L'Oreal.  Love them all.  This was promising.  I was going in for more MORE.

The first article I set out to read was titled "How To Let Go of Wanting to Look Young".  Oh no.  Here it comes. It's going to tell me to dress more conservatively after 40.  It's going to tell me to walk every day, and lift weights moderately to help my bones from becoming brittle.  It's going to tell me to (gasp) cut my hair shoulder length or shorter. I wanted to smack the magazine closed before having to endure any of this, but the beautiful woman pictured at the top got my attention. It was a split shot of her as a professional ballerina at 20, and then today in her 50's.  I have to admit, she was beautiful in both frames. So I read on.

In this article, psychologist Vivian Diller (ex ballerina) talks about why even very confident women are thrown when they start to see signs of aging.  She calls this an Uh-Oh moment (goes right along with Oprah's Ah-Ha moment). These changes reach down to a place more deep than just outward appearance. It makes women wonder what their future holds, and who they are as a woman. This can cause one to panic, and to try to fix the outward signs of her aging, so that she will still know who she is. Once you have your Uh-Oh moment, let yourself feel sad about the loss, then move on. If you don't go through this, you can't open up to the possibilities of what you may become. After all, we're not talking about the next 20 years anymore.  We're talking about the next 40 years.

I liked this article very much.  O.K., I liked the entire magazine. I may pick up a copy next month as well, and see where it goes. Maybe this can be my first step into getting over my Uh-Oh moment (which has actually been an Uh-Oh year, really).

In the meantime, even though I don't get free trial magazines from those publications geared towards the twenty/thirty something women, I still buy all the subscriptions.  I can make them send it to me, dammit.  How's that for graceful?