Taffy Sinclair 008 - Taffy Sinclair and the Melanie Make-Over by Betsy Haynes

she took roll, and we bobbed up and down in our seats when our names were called.
    " Today we ' re going to work on hairstyling, makeup, and visual poise—such as getting in and out of a car, sitting down properly, and things like that. But first, I want to talk to you a little bit about what real beauty consists of. "
    Beth and I exchanged glances when she said that, and several girls giggled. Then I looked at Taffy and Melanie. They were sitting there with little smiles on their faces as if they already knew what she was going to say and they expected to be used as examples.
    Laura took a deep breath and looked around the room thoughtfully. " Real beauty, " she began, " is more than how you look, if you have a pretty face, dress well, and things like that. It ' s even more than learning all the things about grooming and poise that I ' m teaching in this class. What real beauty is, " she paused for emphasis, " is something that comes from your heart. It is your internal glow that produces the external beauty that makes people want to be near you. In other words, it ' s how you feel on the inside that makes you beautiful on the outside. I want you to write that first sentence in the blank space at the top of page seven in your Runway to Beauty booklets. " Laura waited a moment while we all shuffled the pages of our booklets and dug in our purses for pencils or ballpoint pens.
    " I didn ' t bring anything to write with, " complained Molly.
    " Me, either, " said Kristin.
    I had an extra ballpoint which I loaned to Kristin, and Laura gave her pencil to Molly.
    " Now, " said Laura. " I ' ll repeat what I want you to write down. It is your internal glow, " she said slowly, and then paused as we wrote like crazy.
    Suddenly Susan ' s hand shot up. " How do you spell ' internal ' ? " she asked.
    Laura patiently spelled the word and then went on, ". . . that produces the external beauty . . ." She paused again as Susan ' s hand shot up for a second time.
    " How do you spell ' external ' ? "
    Laura chuckled and spelled that word too. " . . . that makes people want to be near you. "
    I thought the sentence over as I finished writing it. In a way, it didn ' t make much sense. If it was something different than what she was teaching us, why was she giving the class in the first place? I thought about raising my hand and asking, but she was starting to talk again.
    " You see, the problem is that some girls place too much importance on superficial attractiveness, or how they look, and not enough on getting the good feelings about themselves that make them glow from within. And that ' s what I ' m going to talk to you about for the next few minutes. Another word for internal glow is self-confidence. It ' s the same self-confidence that makes it easy to walk across a room when people are watching, to open your mouth and say the right thing or be able to laugh if you don ' t, and to always feel that you are at your best no matter who else may be around you without being self-conscious or embarrassed. "
    Now we ' re getting somewhere, I thought. This was exactly what I wanted to know.
    For the next few minutes Laura talked about liking yourself and accepting yourself for who you are.
    " No one is ever satisfied with how she looks, " she said.
    That ' s a laugh, I thought, thinking about Taffy Sinclair.
    But Laura was still talking. " For one thing, my ears are too big. That ' s why I wear my hair to cover them. And my nose is too pointy. "
    I looked quickly at Laura ' s nose. I had never noticed that it was pointy before, but she was right. Still, on her it looked good.
    " Also, " she said, lowering her voice to confidential tones, " my feet are huge ."
    Everybody laughed, and a few girls tucked their own feet under their chairs.
    " The secret is to concentrate on the good things about yourself. Not just the good things about your looks, although those are important, too. But concentrate on the things you like about yourself. Your good