I wrote an author's note for my newest book, A Thousand Times More Fair, about what inspired me to write it. I felt that it was a little too preachy to put into the book, and that it was too long for anyone to enjoy reading after finishing the story. I like quick resolutions and this would drag things out, even if it was just a note added after the final chapter. So I didn't include it.
But I still wanted to share it. This book means a lot to me, and I want you to know why.
A Note from the Author
When I was a girl, I hated my eyebrows. They were far too thick. Everyone else had pencil thin eyebrows. Literally. People would pluck their eyebrows until they were nonexistent and then have to draw them back in.
I told my mother I wanted to pluck my eyebrows and she
wouldn't let me. She said I had beautiful eyebrows, and if I plucked or shaved
them they might not grow back right. She told me about actresses from old
movies that had thick eyebrows that were considered gorgeous in their day. I
didn't care about their day. I cared about my day and how everyone else looked
right then.
It wasn't just eyebrows. I didn't like my body shape. All
the celebrities seemed to have absolutely flat stomachs. I had this bulge in
the front part of my tummy. My mom said it was normal. It wasn't until I saw
Nani in Lilo and Stitch rocking a tummy bulge that I believed her.
I also disliked how light my skin was. I couldn't seem to
tan. My cousin (who had beautiful olive skin) said in the olden days my fair
complexion would be the envy of all the ladies. Again, I didn't care about the
olden days. How did that help me right then?
As I progressed through my teenage years, however, I started
to dislike how my friends talked about their own bodies. They were so
beautiful, and they nitpicked about things that I didn't even notice. Who cares
about your acne? You have the facial features of a Roman goddess! You think
you're fat? Your body is a perfect hourglass shape! What do you mean you hate
your frizzy hair? I would kill for curls like that! I realized, if their
insecurities sounded ridiculous to me, maybe mine sounded the same way to them.
Slowly, I saw myself the way my mother saw me. She was always saying I was beautiful. Maybe she was right. Maybe I had been told for so long by the rest of the world what beauty should be, I had been blinded to the beauty staring back at me in the mirror.
I stopped calling myself fat. I stopped complaining about my skin and my
eyebrows. I even accepted compliments. It felt good.
And then, when I reached adulthood, something weird happened. Everyone changed their minds about what was beautiful. Suddenly, curves were all the rage, and it's hard to have curves when you have zero fat on your body. Freckles were cool, and those don't tend to show up when you tan. And thick eyebrows were in. By then, I no longer cared what the rest of the world said was beautiful. But somehow, I had become a standard for beauty. I hadn't changed myself at all. It was the world that had changed.
If that's how flimsy the standard of beauty is, how quickly
fads can change, what is the point of trying to adhere to them? Why not simply
declare that we are gorgeous as we are, and then wait for the rest of society
to agree?
I wrote A Thousand Times More Fair because I want every woman to understand that they don’t have to fit a certain mold to be beautiful. I chose Snow White as my protagonist because of what she represents. The Western world knows her as the fairest of them all. What does that really mean, though? I hope as you read this book, you’ll realize the answer is more subjective than you thought.
A Thousand Times More Fair will be available on Amazon November 29, 2024! Preorder the ebook now.
