she will "see" herself differently?

I have recently been reinventing myself. You see, I will be graduating with a long-overdue bachelor's degree on May 12, 2012. I am starting my internship in a couple of weeks, and needed to refresh my stay at home mom/college student wardrobe to something more professional, AND I have gained a bit of weight since quitting smoking about 3.5 months ago (totally worth the more curvy ass!). Although I have gained a pant size, I feel WONDERFUL about myself. Not only have I put on weight here, people, but I have practically scalped myself and now have gray, un-dyed hair! I keep waiting for a cashier somewhere to call the police when they check my driver's license vs. my credit card! The point I'm dancing around here is that how you look vs. how your feel about your looks is all attitude. Women who look fabulous don't fit into Cosmo's "box" always, but the one thing they all have in common is their attitude. Most American women have this idea that men only really like women who wear a size 6 or smaller, have blonde highlights, perfect pore-less skin, and blue eyes. This is just not true. No truer than the fear men have that size matters to all women. Most men would probably agree that they would prefer a curvy woman that has the attitude that they're sexy, and does not constantly need positive comments (the proverbial "does this make my butt look big?" every day). Imagine a world where everytime a woman has sex with a man, he insists the lights are off so that she can's see how big his willie is, and he's constantly asking if it was big enough. This would get on my last nerves, personaly, and no matter how satisfied I was I'd have to ditch the dude! Women frequently make stigma about ourselves, and it needs to STOP! For example, most people have heard this one: "Men look distinguished with gray hair, but women just look old!"---WHO SAYS, LADIES??? Why, I've never heard a man say this, only a woman in a group of other women who have dyed hair! Why do we have this mentality? If we all just stopped torturing ourselves with toxic chemicals, we'd find out that we actually look better with naturally colored hair--that was designed specifically for our skin tone by good old mother nature! Imagine that, hair color designed specifically for my skin and no one else's--how much would they pay for that in Hollywood? All of this leads to my not skinny friend. She is also graduating this May, and has taken an internship position that requires her to buy a complete new wardrobe. Ever since I have known her, she has talked about "when I get skinny again I'm going to get that outfit".....I am going to attempt to help her change her attitude to "Wow, I look good in this NOW, not several years from now when I am once again a stick-figure"...wish me luck because everyone deserves to feel good about themselves today!