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My lovely agent, Jill Corcoran, recently suggested to me that I “build more of an online presence.”

An innocuous suggestion, but to my ears, it may as well have been “build an army and overthrow capitalism.”

In other words: a big project.

So here I am today, knee-deep in writing articles, posting on Facebook, emailing back and forth, and Tweeting my heart out, and I just thought I’d take a quick break to ask you writers, artists, or businessfolks out there:

How the hell do you do it?

Moving from the creative and cushy cloud world of illustrating my book, Call Me Perfect, into marketing head space feels like hard edges and scraped shins. Don’t get me wrong, when I get into the flow of a project, I am there, and only there exists. But when I am finished with it, and I take a look at the rest of the list of Things To Do in order to “build more of an online presence” my heart starts beating a little faster.

Tweet

Post

Email

Tweet

Post

Email

And on, and on.

I tell you: I’ll be happy when one day soon I have a team to help me with all of this.

But at least for today, I can check “Blog Post” off the list.

Note from the Editor (That’s me):

Dear reader,

Do you love the world of marketing? Do you get tickled with your PR prowess? I’d love some help in gaining more of an audience and online presence. Let me know if this is something you, or someone you know, might be interested in. ❤

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I think a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed right now. Maybe even a little hopeless. These feelings, more than any others I know, tend to sort of permeate the air – they’re catching; they spread.

I’m feeling hopeless today. I really am.

I had a conversation last night with someone about diet. The more we got to talking, the more I realized, this person – this seemingly happy and cheerful person – has an eating disorder. She’s fooling herself into believing that she’s finally found a miracle food plan that works! But – she’s hurting her body.

And she has no idea.

I thought about it all night, and all of today. I can’t get it out of my mind. We live in a society where fad diets (namely, diets that cut out complete food groups [excluding sugar]) as miracle life cures. There are fad diets that cut out fruit; some that cut out all carbs; all animal products; even all white foods.

It struck me as so very painful, because it’s just normal. Almost everyone I know is either on a diet, or has been on a diet, or is on a diet and doesn’t even know it. The restrictive diet has become their lifestyle – and that lifestyle is now disordered eating.

To be clear, I am NOT talking about healthy eating habits – this is a sustainable lifestyle choice, and can only improve your energy and overall health.

I am talking about restrictive diets – things that eliminate major, important food groups. Like healthy fats, like healthy proteins, like healthy complex carbs. They can’t last forever, and when they stop lasting, it’s either because the person’s body just can’t take it anymore and begins craving the nutrition it’s not getting SO badly, the person must give in. (Often plaguing that person with guilt and self-hatred – “How did I let this happen? I was doing so well!” But rest assured – YOUR BODY KNOWS WHAT IT NEEDS!)

And sometimes, it ends only when that person dies – like Steve Jobs, for example, who famously died of Pancreatic Cancer (one of the ultimate, horrific side effects of the Fruitarian Diet.)

This all comes up so painfully for me, because I KNOW this pain. I was bulimic growing up and anorexic for much of my 20s. I know this pain, and you do, too, whether you’re aware of it or not. It’s a collective pain – a collective sickness – that in hundreds of not-so-subtle ways effects us all.

More than ever, I want to help people – which is why February 5th I’m launching a Kickstarter for my book, Call Me Perfect. It’s book for kids and teens on body image and self-love. I won’t talk about it much here, because I’m sure by the end of the campaign, you all will be simply sick of hearing about it.

But god, I hope it helps. I hope it’s huge. I hope every kid in the world can read it. Because this pain? This collective need to be perfect (i.e. thin)? It is literally killing us.

We’ve got to make this stop.

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A few posts ago I mentioned: Body Image.

I was talking about a potential second book to Just Call Me Is. It would focus specifically on body image from a mindfulness standpoint, for tweens.

Well that was about a month or more ago, and now, that book is finished.

At this point I am 90 percent sure I will be doing another Kickstarter for this sequel book, as I did for the first. The only hesitation is that a Kickstarter is a huge undertaking. And I feel like I’ve only just finished asking my friends, peers, and family members to support me.

It’s a vulnerable thing, reaching out like this – especially with material that is so vulnerable and important to me – and especially two times in a row.

It brings up all sorts of insecurities and self-doubts. Will this one be supported in the same way as the last? Will people be so tired of me asking for things that they’ll put up a wall? Should I just – stop?

But then I remember what I’ve learned over the years, not just about the power of vulnerability(thanks Brene Brown), but the art of asking. (Apparently, I watch a lot of Ted Talks.) If the asking comes from a place of honesty, of integrity, and yes, of vulnerability – not of manipulation or selfless inconsideration – you’re at least being as real as you can be.

And in the case of many a Kickstarter, you’re not asking for yourself; you’re asking for your project. Your art. Your expression. You’re asking for help to help the world.

Rather, I am.

Come February, I hope you’ll forgive me when, once again, I make an ask of you. Not for me, but to support a project that I think could really help tweens and teens and one day adults – so that they don’t have to grow up so haunted by body image as you and I did.

I’ll keep you all posted as this (potential/likely/but absolutely terrifying) Kickstater gets further underway.

Love,

Natalie