Cover Letter

The two main revisions that I decided would best benefit my blog project was to add a more personal voice to my writing, and I went over and made sure that all of my past and present verb tenses were being used in the right way. I always tend to use too much voice and add too many personal comments to my research papers, so doing this blog project was like a god sent to me. When I say that I went and made my voice more personal, I mean I added my direct thought on what I felt about certain facts that I pointed out when I first was doing the blog. By being myself in these comments I wish to show readers a sense of who I am more in the piece and get across my feelings on the tough issues that I bring up. Hopefully, by doing this I can come off as more relatable.  Misusing past tense and present tense verbs is always something that I have done since I first started writing. It could have something to do with the fact that my thought process is faster than my typing. Whatever the reason may be, I caught a lot of wrong verb tenses in my second project. No matter how many times I went over the blog before I turned it in, they just slipped by me. Now that the verbs are fixed I hope that it created a better flow to my blog and didn’t leave the sentence sounding off, like it did previously.

How I have grown as a writer in this, English 1100, class is by being learning how to show who I am as a person in my writing. My previous English class, senior year of high school, I had a teacher that wanted everybody write the same way. She had a strict set of rules that everyone had to abide by with our papers or we would get a low grade.  As a result, I no longer viewed writing as something that was a way of expressing myself, but as something that I had to do because it was a school assignment. Through the course of this class I have found my voice again as well as learned how to paint pictures in people’s heads with my words. 

annotated bibliography

Work Cited

Botelho, Greg. "Seventeen Magazine Vows Not to Alter Images, to 'celebrate Every Kind of Beauty' –

               CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 July 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

               <http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/us/seventeen-photoshopping/index.html>.

                This article is about how a 14-year-old girl who attempted to get Seventeen Magazine to stop photo shopping their models.  She made a petition, and got thousands of people to sign it, before she brought it straight to Seventeen’s headquarters.  I want to use this source as a starter block on the issue of how the media adds pressure to the youth to look perfect.  The author of the article gives both sides of issue, that of the little girl and then one of the magazine. He also includes interviews with the magazine personal itself which help show their stance on this issue more.  By him doing this is shows the intensive research that he put into for this article.  

Conley, Mikaela. "The Real-Life Ukrainian Barbie Doll." ABC News. ABC News Network, 23 Apr. 2012.  

Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/04/23/the-real-life-ukrainian-

               barbie-doll/>.

                This article is a about a Russian model who looks sickeningly similar to Barbie. She claims that she has never had plastic surgery and doesn’t alter her pictures.  I choose this article specifically for that fact that the author had the same stance has I had.  The main point made by the author was one of the Valerie is showing a prime example of how the society’s expectations of beauty are putting to so much pressure on the youth.  I also used this source based on the fact that I believed what the author was saying. Unlike many articles on this topic, this author had credible sources for her information and interviews that she conducted herself.

Slattery, John. "News." NYC Political Strategist Says Southwest Airlines Told Her And Mother They Must

Buy 4 Seats « CBS New York. N.p., 18 May 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

<http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/18/another-too-fat-to-fly-controversy-hits-southwest-          

               airlines/>.

This articles brings up the controversial topic of being “too fat” to fly.  A woman and her mother were humiliated in the airport when they were forced to buy two seats, each, based on their weight.  I chose the certain article because they interviewed Kenlie themselves.  The article showed their whole interview and this gave me a better perspective on what exactly happened and not just things other news reporters had to say about it. This article is going to help me when I try and show that society is not yet accepting of overweight individuals.

Thomson, David. "Big Ideas Live Here." The New Republic. TNR.com, 6 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.

<http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/105847/the-inscrutable-life-and-death-marilyn- 

               monroe>.

                This article talks about the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. David discusses the darker part of her life that lead up to her overdose on pills, which ended her life.  What made me want to use this source was the fact that it had her whole life story in it, not just some random interesting facts. If I was going to write this post the way that I wanted, which was using facts about her background and comparing it to mine, then I needed to be well versed in who she was.  Not only does the article supply me with what I needed, but it also the author shares the same belief of me that beauty and fame isn’t what is important.  The only difference is that he uses the term “beauty isn’t truth”. 

TLC. ""Pretty Woman" Toddler | Toddlers & Tiaras." YouTube. YouTube, 08 Sept. 2011. Web. 05 Nov.

                2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxEt5YL8w4>.

                This video is to show an example of how some of the parents, in these “Glitz” pageants, are taking things too far. The mother, in the clip, is shown dressing up her child like a prostitute.  I chose this certain YouTube video because of the interview that takes place with one of the moms. Since my whole post was going to be about how I opposed what is taking place on the television show, showing a  pageant mom disagree with something she saw take place helped back up my point of view.

Toddlers and Tiaras

When I heard that there was going to be a new TV show out that involved toddler beauty pageants, at first, I was excited. I love kids. It has always been a dream of mine to have a child with the man that I love. An actual object that was made out of our love for each other (My friends know me to me a little too excited when it comes to babies). So, of course, a show with kids was something that I planned on watching. But, when I watched the first episode of Toddlers and Tiaras, I felt like the moms were more interested in the pageant then their daughters. It was not cute.

An example of this is in the video. How would a toddler know what the movie Pretty Women is? She wouldn’t (I didn’t even understand what the movie was about until I watched it again when I was older). The mother dressed her daughter up as a prostitute to try and gain shock value from the judges, hoping it might help her score. Not only is this outfit inappropriate, but it is also introducing the young girl to sex. I know when I was a toddler I would always ask questions about everything. This 3-year-old had to have asked her mother what she was supposed to be portraying. There is no appropriate way to describe what a prostitute is to a young child. The whole situation is just unacceptable, in my book.

Not every toddler beauty pageant involves the fake teeth, fake tan, extensions, and make up. It’s the “glitz” pageants that involve the sexualization of young girls. No three year old child should look like they are in their teens. (Like the girl in the image on the right). Toddlers and Tiaras just help confirm to me that when I have children I am going to let them be children. They shouldn't have to worry about not running around because they could mess up their extensions. Kids should be allowed to just be kids. The idea that the pageants are putting into the kids heads that you have to be perfect is just something that needs to be examined. I’m just afraid that later in life the children develop body image issues or other mental disorders (like depression or anorexia).