It’s finally here! Stella & Dot just introduced their Little Girl’s Collection just in time for Mother’s Day. There’s even a gorgeous set of pearls, just for the little Belle in your life. After all, every Southern Belle needs pearls to wear, no matter how old she is! To celebrate, I cordially invite you to our Mommy & Me Online Trunk Show>>

Just because you’re a Rogue Belle doesn’t mean you don’t like to shop. And every Belle LOVES gorgeous jewelry. So I’m happy to announce the Grand Opening of the Rogue Southern Belle’s Boutique with our exclusive designer jewelry line, Stella & Dot!

Turquoise & Pave Soirée Bracelet

To celebrate our Grand Opening, I’m giving away this beautiful Soirée Turquoise & Pave Bracelet, worth $29.

There are 5 ways to enter this drawing to win. Use each way once to enter as many as 5 times. The more you enter, the higher your chances of winning. This giveaway will end on April 30, 2010, so hurry!

Enter to Win the Turquoise & Pave Soirée Bracelet

1. Visit http://www.stelladot.com/belle and find one gorgeous piece of jewelry that you just adore for yourself or as a gift for someone else. Then come back here to post a comment below about what you like about that piece of jewelry.
2. Write about the Rogue Belle’s Boutique Grand Opening on your Facebook or Twitter page. Be sure to include a link to this page. Then come back here and comment about it below.
3. Buy anything at http://www.stelladot.com/belle.
4. Sign up for the Rogue Belle News.
5. Become a Fan of the Rogue Belle’s Facebook Fan Page.

Remember, Men: Mother’s Day is right around the corner! Enter to win this bracelet for the Rogue Belle Mommies in your life.

Solange Magnano, 38-year old mother of twins, dies after elective cosmetic surgery

Argentinian beauty queen and supermodel Solange Magnano died Sunday, November 29, of a pulmonary embolism resulting from complications during gluteoplasty, or cosmetic buttocks enhancement surgery. She was so loved in her country that her memorial service was broadcast on Argentine television. Solange leaves behind a husband without a wife and 8-year-old twin daughters without a mother, all in the name of beauty.

So what’s so bad about beauty? Southern Belles know all too well the importance placed on physical beauty – we’re painted and squeezed and tweezed into it from an early age. After all, the South is the birthplace of the American debutante stereotype.  Feeling beautiful feels good, and that is something to celebrate. But the modern definition of physical beauty has become one of starved Barbie doll girls obsessed with youth and fake plastic perfection. And now that we have the technology to cut our bodies into this unrealistic expectation, we are at risk of losing more than just our self respect. Sol, as she was known to her friends and family, was a savvy, successful business woman (she owned her own modeling agency) in the prime of her life who would appear flawless to most of us. But her desire to firm up her already great looking derrière to meet these extreme pop standards cost her life.

Should we blame the plastic surgery industry? No. Cosmetic surgery itself is not the bad guy.  A woman who survives the ravages of breast cancer can feel normal again with breast reconstruction. Women who have been disfigured by the brutal practice of female circumcision can be helped with vaginal reconstruction. And even us non-supermodel belles can get a nip or tuck here or there. But we all must understand the risks and weigh the benefits.  It’s not as simple as buying a new shade of lipstick to go with the new tailored jacket you bought on an impulse because you’d had a bad day. Ask yourself the question “Why do I want to look like this and for whom?” If the answer is “I want to look like the women in magazines/on television/in Hollywood because I’ll get more attention from more men/I’ll keep the man I’ve got/I’ll be happier for no reason that I can put into words…I just will.” than perhaps you should reconsider. Living by someone else’s definition of beauty instead of your own is an unfulfilling, unhappy and possibly fatal way to live.

And if it’s tough for grown women to separate the external voices in our heads from our own definition of self-worth, it’s impossible for young girls. Add to that the fact that marketers are selling sex to younger and younger kids each year and you have a well-trained, plastic beauty-obsessed consumer generation up and coming. Gamer boys would rather spend more time with Tomb Raiders’ Lara Croft and Final Fantasy’s Tifa than with real, live girls. Have you ever really looked at a Bratz doll without expecting her to say “Do you wanna party with me tonight?” What are we teaching little girls when we put them through their paces in the Little Miss Whatever beauty pageants? As a former beauty queen herself, Tinamarie Bernard flatly states that she won’t allow her daughter to participate in that plastic-obsessed beauty contest world because of the risk. And I won’t allow my daughter to own a Bratz doll for the same reason.

We are women – not plastic dolls with a pulse – and our daughters and sons are not for sale. If only Solange had been able to hear this one, beautiful truth over the din of outside voices screaming “You’re not pretty enough!”