All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty

by Audrey D. Brashich, Shawn Banner (Illustrations)

Don't believe everything you read. Open any magazine or turn on any T.V. show and you'll be bombarded with air brushed, perfectly styled and made-up celebrities and super models, icons of beauty that real women can never match. Too often, girls, measure themselves against these unrealistic images and find themselves lacking. But we can all break free from the cult of celebrity and start liking the face we see in the mirror once we understand that many of these images of beauty are all made up. In the spirit of Fast Food Nation , media-awareness activist Audrey Brashich delivers an in-depth, informative, and eye-opening look at the effect the media and pop culture has on young women's self images.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Audrey D. Brashich has worked in teen and women’s journalism since 1993. She’s been an intern, editor, freelancer and writer for magazines such as Sassy, Jump, YM, Seventeen, Elle Girl, Cosmo Girl, Teen People, Girls Life, Lucky, Mademoiselle, Working Woman, Elegant Bride, Shape, Ms., Health, Healing Lifestyles & Spas and others. Much of her work focuses on body image, understanding media influences, self-esteem and positive opportunities for girls and women.

Audrey is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and of Brown University in Providence, RI, where she earned a master’s degree in American Civilization that focused on gender and popular culture. In 1997, she won a Fulbright fellowship to teach American studies courses to high school students in France. At present, she serves on the board of directors of Mind on the Media, a national non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring independent thinking and fostering critical analysis of media messages, and consults with national organizations on their programming and policies for girls.

As a child and adolescent, Audrey modeled for several prominent companies and magazines including Clinique cosmetics, J.Crew, Modern Bride, Sassy and Seventeen, which helped shape her understanding of the power of the media in the creation of self image. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and New York City (where she was born and raised), and likes to run marathons.

Reviews

[Hailey Pugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Made Up is an inspiring book about how young girls can get past the hype of the media and models. Today's beauty standard for young girls and women is unrealistic. Not everyone can look like the models in the magazines and ads that you are seeing everyday because those aren't real people!! This book shows you how you can be happy with who you are and how to not believe that what your seeing everyday is what you need to look like, because its not. Brashich shows girls that they are beautiful the way they are. She tells them to find a real role model, someone that is doing great things, not someone who you see in a magazine. Brashich shows girls that by being healthy, or doing good in school, or having a passion for something can make you as confident and as beautiful as ever. I really liked that this book could be applied to any age group. Women of all ages struggle with body image and this book can help you. So many girls struggle with body image and self-acceptance issues and this book shows you that you aren't alone and that you don't need to be insecure because you are perfect how you already are. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone at any age. It shows you how to love your body and how to treat other people to let them know that they are perfect the way they are.

[Isabella Velasquez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book was sort of good till it started talking about boys.
Not everyone cares about what men think and a man not falling for some fake crap shouldn’t consider him a hero
(pg92).Also dragging women, not cute hun.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fairly fine until the three letter f-word was used (yes, in a way that made it clear it was a negative word) but in 2006?! Come on. It put me off the rest of the book and I couldn't finish.

[Larisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this on the return shelf and picked it up because of it's bright orange, eye-catching cover. The reason I actually signed it out was because of Leeah who told me it was a good book to read and super interesting.
"All made up" talks about the lies and the fiction in the "amazing" and "perfect" worlds or lives that celebrities and models are said to have. It talks about the pressure from the media that's put on girls mainly but there is a chapter on how this may effect boys. It gives us alternative activities than watching TV, surfing the web and being bombarded with the media and helps us find a beautiful person in a different way, through their personality.
It was very interesting, I had no choice but to finish it. I enjoyed it very much.
I would recommend this book to any teenager, it talks about something we are all effected by especially when we are at an age where we need that reassurance with our bodies, but we make the mistake of comparing it to lies that will hurt us.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is all about proving to people that the media and celebrities are all made up and that looking like that and the shows that diriectors create arent reality.
it has a lot of of strange truths and lots of notes about actresses and actors andwhat they did.
i think if youre into celebrites and the media and you want to know the truth behind it you should deffinitaly read this book.
the author who wrote it used to be a model and an actress and its her story talking about the hype.
what an intresting book.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as a woman well beyond her teen years (despite being confused for a high school student on multiple occasions!), I found this book encouraging and enlightening. It was astounding (and really sad) how many of the young girls interviewed stated a desire to look more beautiful and idealized the lives of supermodels. Quick, anecdotal reading with helpful eye-opening facts about the modeling industry, marketing, and the media.

[Melydely · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really inspiring. It helped me see through the gossip magazines.

All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty talks about how the media is all fake, and how to celebrate yourself-instead of torturing yourself just to look like J-Lo or Selena Gomez.

[GamerGal]

Even though it is a book meant for young women & teens, I have never felt so empowered by a book! Very few books resonate with me the way this one did.