Facing the Tents

Technically, I am on an airplane right now, but I thought you all should know: I'm going to Fashion Week in New York. It's crazy, right? I'm attending with Total Beauty, and I will be there for this Saturday and Sunday. So I'm not doing the whole week -- just getting my feet wet.

Since it's going to be particularly beauty-heavy, my Fashion Week content will be on Periodic Beauty Reviews, so now is the time to subscribe! I'll also be Twittering my experiences at the blog's Twitter account, @periodicstyle, so if you aren't already following, it's a good time to start!

I've never been to an event of this size and this prestige, and so I am (as you can understand) a bit of a nervous wreck. As soon as I learned I had the opportunity to go, the first person I went to to ask for advice was Sarah Conley of StyleItOnline.com. Sarah's the community manager for Coutorture, and she is one radtastic lady. I knew she would steer me straight and it's been so great to get her help and her knowledge and her encouragement.

Sarah's a two-time vet of New York Fashion Week, and this year she's putting together a mini web series called On The Plus Side: A Fuller Figured Fashion Week Experience. It's about being a plus-sized woman during Fashion Week, and how the pressure of an event like that can cripple the most confident and professional of us because of how it makes us feel about our bodies. And that's partially why I decided to just be there for two days: I'm there to see if I can really hang in there, if I can make it, if I can handle it. I know it's going to be tough for little wallflower nerdy me.

I'm so looking forward to watching Sarah's series, because these are issues that all of us need to think about and talk about no matter what size we are. As Sarah says in her mission statement, we need to be helping each other instead of hurting each other. I think we all can agree with that.

I definitely recommend that you check out On the Plus Side; I know that even when Fashion Week's done for me, I'll be checking in on Sarah and seeing the rest of it through her perspective, which is an incredible opportunity for all of us.

See you at Periodic Beauty and Twitter!