Has anyone read Figure?
If so, what do you think of it?

I just picked it up for the first time yesterday. I'd never seen it before, although I think it's been around for a year or so. ?
I really like seeing "normal sized" models. They make me feel more beautiful because I can relate to their size. And their clothing choices are more realistic for my body type.
When I look at other magazines, I feel completely out of control. I feel that I'll never attain what they have, and they make me feel fat, frumpy, old and ugly. Which I'm NOT!!

I didn't know there was a new one out there. I remember subscribing to that crazy Radiance one...I used to buy MODE which wasn't too bad, but more for the older crowd, then there was Grace, which I liked because Kate Dillon was on their first cover, and lots of people tell me I look like her when my hair is longer. All of those are out of print from the last I heard, but I'll have to look for this Figure magazine and check it out.

Ellis, that sounds really positive! I've noticed lately how much ads affect me, because there have been more and more ads in magazines and on tv featuring African Americans. I think that's fantastic but I'm always surprised when I have this automatic reaction of feeling excluded (must be what they've been feeling for years! ) and thinking, "Well, that's not me, so it must not be an ad for me." I wonder if my mind says the same thing when I see ads for pretty clothes on stick skinny models?

I'll have to check this out! For the same reason you mentioned, I have a calendar of pin-up drawings from the 40s on my bathroom wall. Those curvy girls make me feel very pretty when I'm getting out of the shower and forced to see my reflection.

Ouch! I quite liked MODE.
I don't know if you'll like FIGURE, Diva, but give it a try!

Laurie, everytime I see an ad with an African-American woman, I am TOTALLY jealous of her skin colour. I'm so sickly British pale. So I know what you mean about not being able to relate. I know that's something I will NEVER attain.
Strange what our minds say to us, eh?
Also, we live in the middle of China Town and Little Italy, and the Asian women here are slender and beautiful. I feel like an elephant beside them.
As for the Italian women... well, many of them are older, short and dumpy. I feel perfectly comfortable with myself when I'm around them.

LOL...you'd feel very comfy in Jersey, Ellis. I know I do! The Jersey shore is full of women who look like us and they're wearing thong bikinis! It really makes you feel very pretty.

I'm with you, girl. We have several Bahamian Int'l students at the school and I drool over their skin color. They are just GORGEOUS! I, too, am sickly pale after several years of living in upstate NY. My best friend as a kid was Japanese-American and so petite. I envied her doll-like figure and tiny feet. <sigh> I guess you always want to be what you are not.

Ellis, I'd love to have eyes as bright and lovely as yours. Baby Ethan has bright blue eyes and they are so lovely! I have my dad's hooded eyes.

*LOL* @ ellis. I didn't mean 'older' as in elderly. At the time I was reading MODE, I was 19-21. hahaha

I hear ya, Diva.

It is funny how the grass is always greener. I am extremely light skinned (almost blue at times) and can get a sunburn in 15 minutes. I've always thought african american women carried excess weight with more sexiness than white women (especially marshmallow white women like me). On another thread someone wrote they were tanning because tan fat looks better than pale fat.

Maybe it's just my mother's Irish/German background I was blessed with, but I don't think I was made to tan either. My skin is light like yours too kaplods. It sucks because my brother took after my dad's Cherokee Indian side and looks Hispanic because his skin is so dark Darn those genes! haha

Kaplods, I so agree with you re: thinking African American women "carry" the weight better. I look at them and think, "You are big but BEAUTIFUL!!" Actually, I don't even see them as "big". I just think "beautiful" when I see them.

Diva, my DH is part Native American. He has a gorgeous nose.
I'm going to be using some instant tan this summer.

Are we ALL sickly white here!?!?

<raising hand> I am! I don't forsee much tanning or gardening time this summer either...I've never used the self-tan lotions...they seem hard to deal with.

I agree...African American women carry extra weight with pride and grace. They are gorgeous! There is an African American woman in my Jazzercise class. She might be even fifty or eighty pounds overweight, but she looks AMAZING! And she doesn't even huddle under the long XXL t-shirts that I still favor. Maybe it is all about attitude?