an update on the beauty of different, and own your beauty
I'm interrupting your regularly-scheduled Chookooloonks for some breaking news:
While I've been pretty silent on Chookooloonks about the progress of the book, the truth is that things are starting to happen. Shipments are scheduled to be on the move this month, and with fingers crossed, by mid-November, those of you who have pre-ordered the book should start receiving your copies.
Which is almost too exciting to contemplate.
As a result, I'm starting to emerge from the quiet associated with waiting for the printer to print and bind the books, and am instead busy with coming up with PR media, plans for possible launch parties and other things in anticipation of the book's arrival. It's very somewhat ... scary, I guess? ... but also incredibly exciting.
One of the things I'm so thrilled to be working on is a collaboration with BlogHer, the largest community of women bloggers on the internet. Some time ago, Lisa Stone, one of the founders of BlogHer, called me. We spoke for some time, and she told me about an idea that she had in mind. "I just think the message of your book is really important," she said. "People, but especially women, don't understand the power that we all have. I'd like to do a year-long initiative on BlogHer to help the women of our community really understand their power."
And so, the Own Your Beauty initiative was formed. Each month for the next year on The Beauty of Different blog (and along with the amazing bloggers behind the sites Operation Beautiful and The Shape of a Mother), I'll be featuring a topic that correlates with the concepts behind the book. My posts will include portraits, interviews and essays with some really beautiful, different people. All of these posts will also appear on the BlogHer website (keep checking back, the landing page will be live later today) where they've also cooked up lots of other interactive goodies for you to really sink your teeth into each topic. I think it's going to be amazing.
The initiative kicks off today, and the topic of October is "authenticity." Please click over there to read my thoughts on authenticity, as well as listen to and watch an interview I did with the inimitable Brené Brown on the subject. And of course, I'd love if you left a comment over there and shared your thoughts.
(Incidentally, if you haven't already saved the RSS feed of The Beauty of Different blog in your feed reader, here it is...
http://www.chookooloonks.com/the-beauty-of-different/atom.xml
... that way, you can stay up to date every time a new post goes live.)
Thanks, everyone. And with that, I now return you to your regularly scheduled Chookooloonks.
Image: The Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the Bay Area fog, photographed in San Francisco on September 20, 2010 with my Nikon D300 and 35mm lens.
Song: 32 Flavors by Ani DiFranco