Yikes, 9 PM. We’re really bordering on Wednesday post territory here. See, as I may have mentioned, Beauty U is on summer break this week, which means I’m on a bit of a break too — or, more accurately, sequestered in an underground bunker working furiously on another project. Meaning, please bear with me if posting is a bit spotty, and thanks in advance to my fellow beauty-minded bloggers as I borrow liberally from you for quick post fodder over the next few days.

Speaking of … This fantastic essay by Justine of Beauty Dart, which is a lovely blog about beauty and art and features much of her completely awesome artwork like the delightful illustration above. Here’s a little taste, from the first paragraph, which resonates with me:

I only started thinking about my body in 5th grade when a girl in my class felt compelled to let me know that I should be having thoughts about my body, and they shouldn’t be good ones—girls can be so nice to each other sometimes can’t they? Before then, I had been a skinny, energetic, and happy kid. The idea of what I looked like on the outside being of little consequence when I was so concerned with things like playing manhunt at nightfall, reading Sweet Valley High novels, and drawing in my sketchbook. I didn’t think twice about things like wearing a bathing suit or a pair of shorts, and it never occurred to me that anyone else might even notice the body I walked around in, it seemed unimportant somehow. I feel like I’ve spent half my life trying to get back to that casual relationship with my body, an un-self-consciousness that seems so easy but never is.

Yes. Remember that total un-self-consciousness kid view of your body? Or maybe you even aspired to looking a certain way, (I too read Sweet Valley High and coveted Jessica and Elizabeth’s corn silk blond hair and perfect size six figures), but you didn’t stress about it yet in terms of your own body because you just figured, it’s okay, I can be that when I grow up.

One good thing about the fact that the entire state of New York is melting in a pool of collective July sweat this week is that we’re all walking around in a lot less clothes. So maybe a good time to practice a bit of that un-self-consciousness, no? I mean, who cares what you look like when it’s too fricking hot to wear pants.