If models could cause otherwise rational individuals to crumble in their presence, exactly how powerful is beauty?

This issue has been analyzed so many times. Yes, the modeling industry has a gargantuan effect on women; old, young and younger. It gives us an image that we all aspire to live up to, but know that 1) it is manufactured to be unattainable, and 2) there are more important things.

When I flip through a magazine, I automatically go to the abs. My midsection/torso was a huge problem area when I was in elementary school, because you know it starts that young. It is my target self-conscious spot. The sucking in, the workouts that never work quick enough, it's exhausting.

The abs, paired with complexion, is pretty much 70% of the money I spend on products. Face wash, scrub, miracle overnight blemish corrector, detox facials, pore shrinkers, vanishing cream, etc. I could single-handedly keep the Body Shop in business, let alone Kiehl's and the fortune I've given to Neutrogena.

So yeah, semi-irrational when it comes to beauty. It is a powerful thing, and luckily I'm light enough to not have to worry about weight issues. Calorie-counting aside...

One of my coxswain friends, tinier than I am, just finished a photo shoot with a photographer friend of hers. Yes, she is very attractive and her pictures were incredible. Do I think she holds certain power over me? No. But then again, coxswains don't back down.

Therein is the lesson: Find something you are good at, that you can contribute to. That is the key to gaining the confidence to go beyond the entire "power of beauty" issue.

Yes, I can fit in a size 2 (depending on the designer), but I also know I have much more to offer. Isn't that where the real power comes from? We all like to think we have beautiful qualities, inside and out, but lets keep it to the realm of the normal girls. Models can be in a class of their own. Although, the next time I go up against an ANTM contestant, she may be a size 0, but I'm Turbokick gunslinger and I never lose.