You start with what you have. Again, you protest. That’s all very well for say, Sue Jones. She has curly hair, an Elizabeth Taylor figure, a generous allowance. As if that is not enough, she is an only child with a lovely room all to herself. But YOUR hair is sticks and straw; YOUR complexion is a mess, and as for what you have to put up with from your family – well, the less said, the better. Poor Sue Jones. You need not envy her. Unless the curly hair covers a wise little head and her parents are firm as well as loving and indulgent, she is headed for bumps and heartaches as surely as New Year follows Christmas. On the other hand, everything about you which bears a label marked “Disadvantage” is a challenge. Every time you meet and overcome that challenge you have won a red feather for your cap.
GOOD LOOKS
Let us take a few minutes to discuss good looks. No matter how often it is proved, young people find it difficult to accept the fact that good looks alone are the least important rung in the Personality Ladder. Some of this attitude is caused, no doubt, by a mistaken notion of what good looks are. To the average girl, good looks, no doubt, means Sue Jones. Of course, the Sue Joneses who fit that description are good-looking, but if that is all they are, they are not destined to go very far. Standards of beauty have undergone drastic revisions in our time. The classic-featured, beautiful-but-dumb, doll is as dead as the dodo. The stage and screen, the worlds of business and romance, no longer scout for the merely beautiful. What gets the contract, the good job, and the diamond ring is the animated face, the merry eye, the friendly smile, the infectious good humor, the grace in movement, the shining hair and band-box look, the beautiful expressive hands, the warm cordial nature. These qualifications are at a premium not only in Hollywood and on Broadway, but on Main Street and everywhere.
You have heard the expression, “All brides are beautiful.” Actually many a bride is as homely as a mud fence. What makes her appear beautiful is inner happiness shining through the plainness of her face. Similarly, a pleasing, happy personality makes the plainest girl or boy attractive.
Examples of personality taking precedence over good looks are legion in story and fact. Consider the case of two famous gentlemen, each cursed or blessed with abnormally large, ugly noses. The one, a great poet, lover and swordsman, Cyrano de Bergerac, let the unhappy fact ruin his life. The other, the great entertainer and showman, Jimmy Durante, has let it help him earn fame and fortune and has become, in spite of it, or rather, because of it, one of the screen’s most beloved personalities.
Many a polished, handsome aristocrat graces the American hall of fame, but the greatest of all Americans was the raw, homely Abraham Lincoln who developed qualities of heart and mind and speech so powerful that they completely eclipsed his ungainly ugliness.
So, it bears repeating: you start out with what you have and what you are and you fashion these into the lovely, glowing personality that is the real you. You examine your temper and disposition, and you try to be perfectly honest about what you find. You take stock of your looks. If your hair is sticks and straws, you turn it into silk. That’s magic, 20th-century style. If your skin is a far cry from a baby’s, you study the baby’s beauty routine and profit by what you learn. If your figure bears an uncomfortable and highly recognizable resemblance to a sack of potatoes or a bean pole, this is an S.O.S. signal calling for drastic rescue measures.
DIET:
Breakfast:
Sliced tomato on green lettuce leaves
Coffee
Lunch:
2 Broiled hamburgers
1 cup boiled cabbage
1/2 glass of whole milk
Dinner:
Vitamin cocktail or tomato juice
Liver (beef or calf), pan broiled
1/2 cup of spinach or beet greens
Raw celery, 4 stalks
Coffee or tea
