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AT 9 YEARS OLD I RECALL WORRYING THAT CARRYING A PURSE TO CHURCH MIGHT LOOK TO THE OLDER GIRLS LIKE I WAS TRYING TOO HARD.
I remember that young, wanting to be stylish, pretty, and feeling self-conscious about how other girls would see me.
At eleven, the youngest and smallest in my advanced ballet class, I tried on every tank top I owned under my leotard. None of them looked anything like what the older girls were wearing. I mustered up the courage to ask, “Where do you get your tank tops?” “Oh, it’s a sports bra.” Mortified. My first blatant attempt at trying to copy what I thought was a fashion trend.
In high school my favorite store was the Gap during it’s Bland Years. We were a match made in heaven. I bought identical pull-overs in black, cream and grey. I owned no color other than blue. In anything.
My favorite brand in college was Banana Republic. I should have been a member of Young Republicans for as nerdy as I dressed: headbands, khakis, more plain pullover sweaters. I can’t recall one thing I owned with a pattern other than floral dresses.
Meh, bland, overly casual, too old or too young for my age. I had no understanding of shapes, accessories, colors — I didn’t know even one of the 10 secrets I teach inside Style & Styleability.
While my weight went up and down I played with my hair color — what was already not great became even worse as I tried to dress my new shape and color palette. I couldn’t figure out what worked, why I wasn’t quite fashionable, cool, didn’t look like the successful New York City dancer that I was when photos like these were taken on tour with the Broadway show “42nd Street” or the Radio City Rockettes.
I WASN’T TRAGIC. I WAS NEVER GOING TO BE NOMINATED FOR THE TV SHOW, WHAT NOT TO WEAR.
(Though shouldn’t I have learned something from all the reruns I’d watched of it??)
I looked fine, okay, average. But I never looked, or felt, remarkable. I watched other girls and felt like they had an “it factor” that eluded me.
I was the girl-next-door before she takes off her glasses, lets down her bun {and then kills it on the dance floor at prom}.
THE PROCESS WAS SLOW. THERE WAS NO OVERNIGHT TRANSFORMATION.
I didn’t hire anyone, or start reading any new magazines. This was years after I moved to New York so the city alone wasn’t the answer. But I matured, and I started paying attention. I became a detective, breaking apart what was working in women I admired, outfits I desired.
I analyzed the difference between inexpensive dresses that looked cheap and those that passed for chic. I had very little money as an actor but I read issues of Lucky Magazine like they were college textbooks, making notes in the margin. I paid attention to which things were from Forever 21, yet my eye was always drawn to was the most expensive piece, so I started to analyze what was different about those items.
And honestly, it happened without my consciously realizing it.
But I do remember three and a half years ago, emailing my friends the various style blogs I was swooning over, and having them reply, “She reminds me of you.” Really?! I didn’t see it.
NO ONE WHO KNEW THE GIRL ABOVE, WOULD EVER HAVE IMAGINED THE TWIST IN THE STORY. LEAST OF ALL ME.
Three years ago I became a stylist.
I SPENT YEARS SEARCHING FOR THE ANSWER FOR MYSELF, THEN YEARS PERFECTING THE SOLUTION.
Now, I’m here to help you follow in my footsteps in the next five weeks.
My whole life I was a teacher. I was the girl choreographing the dances starting in elementary school right on through professional performers: breaking down tap steps, making the complex easy, living for that aha moment when someone saw themselves in the dance mirror … and now the dressing room mirror.
All those takeaways from taking notes in my Lucky Magazine like a Nancy Drew nerd — they became my lesson plan for Style & Styleability. I realized if I had uncovered the recipe to blossoming, I could teach it to you.
And I realized if blossoming made me this much happier, joyful, more confident — truly, changed my life — I could do that for you.
There’s a whole new level of beautiful you’ve yet to experience.
It gives you confidence you didn’t realize was missing in every area of your life — you make eye contact with more gentlemen in line for coffee or initiate more sex with your husband, you approach “big people” at events you didn’t have the confidence to before or get noticed at work for looking more polished and pro, you float into your school reunion instead of slink, you’re the hot mom you always envisioned you’d be.
It gives you the power to be the woman you’d always dreamed you could be.
I smile more. I get more compliments, I give more compliments. The little everyday things have more feminity, beauty and joy.
And I’m utterly in love with my life. It’s not perfect, I’m not perfect, but I know that I’m crafting the life of my dreams. And I know the girl in the Nikes and mom jeans wouldn’t have made it half this far.
I can’t put into words how marvelous it feels to walk into a room as “the after”. But I can show you how so you can feel it too. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you.
It’s time to say yes to Style & Styleability and take your story to the next level.
tired of struggling? READY TO FEEL SUCCESSFUL?
Doors Close in…
CAN’T WAIT TO TEACH YOU EVERYTHING I KNOW!
P.S. Have a problem, love? Drop Team Dean a note!