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Beauty Through Strength
Julie Howell
United KingdomGALLERYCONVERSATION
When the MS Society approached me with the offer of being painted by Melissa, we talked about a title for the project.
I don't consider my body a friend. At 19, it turned against me and it let MS take it over. My body has always been prone to being overweight. My face is not pretty. I've always felt 'attractive enough,' but I do not feel strength through beauty.
I've met many women with MS in my life. Some show no outward sign of the condition. Others are - in the most extreme sense of the word - physically crippled by it. What is moving about these women isn't the sorrow or pity that you feel for them, but the realization that these women that are trapped in bodies they can't control.
Spend a few moments talking to any woman with MS, and whatever physical disability they might be contending with that day will fade into the background, and you will forget that you're talking to a woman with MS and realize that you're simply talking to a woman.
When the physical aspect is gone, you will find yourself face-to-face with a woman who is embracing life, who is not beaten, who has all the sensuality that every woman has. Our bodies are just a shell. Our bodies are not who we are. For me, it's our strength as women that makes us beautiful. Beauty Through Strength.
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