美麗的真相是什么？美國一位34歲的母親為她的女兒寫了一份家信，告訴她何為美麗。在她18歲時(shí)，她的母親就因?yàn)榘┌Y不幸去世，因此她留下這封信，以防將來她遭遇不幸時(shí)，女兒還有一份信告訴她人生的意義。

Dear Girls,

我親愛的孩子們，

You’re so young right now, but I hope these letters will be helpful to you one day when you’re older. There is so much I wish I could ask my mother now that I am a grown woman. There is so much we never got to talk about. I’m planning on being around for you well into your lives and adulthood, but even so, I think having these letters will be useful in some way. Who knows how things might change down the road, and at least you’ll have your 34-year-old mother’s thoughts down on paper.

你們現(xiàn)在如此稚嫩，但我希望將來某一天等你們長大了，這封信將會(huì)對(duì)你們有幫助。作為一個(gè)成年女人，我也有很多想問我媽媽的問題，有很多我和她從未談及過的事情。在你們的成長中，我會(huì)在你們身邊幫你們過好生活長大成人，但即使這樣，我認(rèn)為這封信也能通過其他方式使你們獲益。誰也不知道將來會(huì)發(fā)生什么，但至少你們會(huì)有我這個(gè)34歲的母親把想法寫下來供你們參考。

Anyway, I want this letter to be about beauty and my relationship to it. I feel this enormous responsibility, as a mother of two little girls, to lead you down a path that is relatively healthy when it comes to beauty and self image. In a lot of women’s eyes I’ve probably already failed in that respect due to the amount of pink-princess-Barbie mess clutteringup Vera’s room right now.

不管怎么樣，我希望談?wù)勱P(guān)于美以及我對(duì)美的看法。作為一個(gè)有兩個(gè)女兒的母親，在談到美和自身形象的問題，我有重要的責(zé)任為你們引導(dǎo)相對(duì)健康的認(rèn)識(shí)之路。雖然在許多女人眼里，我這方面做得并不值得稱贊，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在在Vera的房間里還亂糟糟地塞滿了卡哇伊的芭比娃娃。

But I will say this about Barbie (and all the rest of that princess garbage): I played with that stufffor a solid decade when I was growing up and here I am now at a healthy weight with a healthy outlook about my body and image. I have a masters degree and have a successful career and a published book. If Barbie were really so damaging to my femininity and self-image I highly doubt I could list all of the latter as accomplishments.

但對(duì)于芭比娃娃（以及系列相關(guān)的公主垃圾玩具）我想說的是，我小時(shí)候玩了整整十年的洋娃娃，現(xiàn)在我是一個(gè)擁有體重標(biāo)準(zhǔn)、保持健康外貌的女性，我獲得了碩士學(xué)位，我事業(yè)成功還出版了一本書。如果芭比娃娃真的對(duì)我的女性特質(zhì)和個(gè)人形象有破壞性的影響，那么我真是非常懷疑我列出的那些成就是怎么來的。

But I get it too. It’s hard for women to maintain a healthy self-image. It’s hard not to obsess over our weight and to wish we could afford more stylish clothes. It’s hard not to covetsomeone else’s hair or hips or eyelashes, and to spend inordinateamounts of time trying to achieve looks that we were never suited for in the first place.

但是我也懂，對(duì)女人來講保持健康的形象很不容易。想要不被體重困擾，不奢求自己能有經(jīng)濟(jì)能力購買更時(shí)尚的衣服，這真的很難；不覬覦別的女生的發(fā)型、翹臀和睫毛，不在自己身上無節(jié)制的花時(shí)間試圖讓自己駕馭那些完全不適合的造型，這些也都太難了。

I have girlfriends around whom I have to brace myself to see, because even though I love them, just being around them makes me self-conscious. I look at old pictures of my mother and wonder why I’ve never been able to be as skinnyas she was. And then I have friends who are thinner than their mothers ever were. We women go round and round in circles, holding hands and trying to be one another sometimes.

我身邊有一群女性朋友，雖然我很愛她們，但每次跟她們接觸我都需要打起精神，只是和她們待在一起我都會(huì)覺得不自然。看著我媽媽的老照片，我總是納悶為什么自己永遠(yuǎn)不能像她那么骨感，然后我發(fā)現(xiàn)身邊有朋友比她媽媽年輕時(shí)還要瘦。我們女人總在轉(zhuǎn)圈圈，有時(shí)還牽著彼此的手試著扮演對(duì)方的角色。