than when you are talking to your daughter. 

Last week I had lunch with the sixth grade girls I visit at the local middle school.  "What's up?"  I asked them as we started settling into our seats with lunch.  There was a sigh here, a shrug there.  And then one of the girls, who I will call Sara, said she was a little sad.  "Why are you sad," I asked in Spanish, as our lunch conversations are usually in Spanish.  "Because my boyfriend and I broke up."  "Why did you break up?"  I pressed. 

When I started work on Hijas Americanas in early 2006, there wasn’t much talk of shaking up America’s beauty standard. I researched, interviewed wonderful, forthright women, and wrote while taking “study breaks” on the net—seeing bloggers and their commentators critique a perceived added pound on Kelly Clarkson or spend countless internet pages dissecting J.Lo’s darker hair color. But I was speaking each day to women who inspired me and reading web surveys of women who stole my heart. Far more Latinas came forward, offering their stories, than I could have ever imagined.

In the fall of 2006, I became convinced that we were on the precipe of a beauty and body standard revolution. That the standards were about to be shaken up in a very real way. We're still warming to that revolution, but I believe it is working up it's speed (look for my revolution posting later this week). Here are some of the things that I remember from 2007 that gave the revolution steam. Check them out here and if you want the full story on any of these, head to http://hijasamericanas.wordpress.com for live links. Here's to at least doubling the list of cheers in 2008!

I have a few copies of Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina on the shelf and thought I would start the new year on the blog with a contest. For every comment posted on the official blog (http://hijasamericans.wordpress.com) from today until midnight EST on January 11, your name will go into a drawing for an autographed copy of Hijas. I'll draw winners the weekend of January 12th and be in touch with you directly if you won to find out who you would like the book dedicated to (for you or it can be a gift!) and where to send it.