Hey guys! It’s Elise, and I’m here to bring Woman of the Week back to Girls In Real Life. This week, I’d like to focus on Sophia Bush. You probably know her as cheerleader Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill, but she is so, so, so much more than that. She is an activist for charities that support the environment, at-risk children, education in developing countries, women’s rights, and more. She’s not afraid to call individuals and organizations out on being racist, anti-feminist, or all around ignorant. Above all, she’s smart, confident in herself, stands up for what she believes in, and is an amazing role model.
Sophia has also always inspired girls to have a healthy body image and confidence in themselves. A couple years ago, the company Urban Outfitters came out with a t-shirt that says “Eat Less.” Sophia was absolutely enraged that such a message would be printed on an article of clothing, much less sold by such a large company. She found it outrageous that “a company that caters particularly to young women would say, ‘Hey, eat less. You’ll feel better about yourself.’ Absolutely not.”
She has the healthiest outlook on life. She is always telling girls “the sexiest thing on anybody is intelligence.” It’s about being confident, being happy, and being good, not about being a certain size or shape, or what you look like at all.I can’t put it into words better than she can herself:
“I think it’s an absolutely ludicrous idea that beauty only fits in one box. You look at history; look at who are our most beautiful, iconic women in the world and they’re all different shapes and sizes and colors and heights… It doesn’t matter what measurement is around our thigh, it matters what you put out into the world. It matters how many times a day you smile; and are you good to the people in your life. Are you good to the people you work with; are you good to your family and your friends? Are you good to your community? Those are the things that make a person beautiful.”
Sophia inspires me to focus the energy I normally spend analyzing and critiquing my body and looks, and turn it around analyze and critique what kind of mark I’m making on the world.
Finally, my favorite Sophia phrase came straight from her character on One Tree Hill. When Brooke becomes a big shot fashion designer, she starts a “Zero is not a size” clothing line. While this brought up some controversy about criticizing naturally skinny girls, I agree with it’s overall purpose. The number zero literally means nothing. To be a size zero would then logically mean that you don’t even have a body. I still think naturally thin girls are beautiful, but they’re not nothing, and they shouldn’t want to be a size zero either. And for those girls that aren’t that naturally thin, Sophia tells you, “Zero is not a size! Life is too short and I’m Italian, I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size zero.”