I’ve been thinking about beauty a lot lately. With 2019 marking the 16th year of publishing Inside Chappaqua we wanted to mark our sweet 16 by featuring some sweet and beautiful content. First off, check out the sumptuous desserts from local restaurants, on pages 31 and 36.
This issue includes several essays on the evolving concept of beauty from different perspectives. High school senior Julia Bialek’s essay discusses how social media puts pressures on teens to conform to a certain unattainable societal standard of beauty but she’s hopeful that more campaigns like Dove’s real beauty will change people’s attitudes about what constitutes beauty.
Marlene Kern Fischer’s essay touches on the cookie cutter mold of beauty that prevailed during the Laverne & Shirley years and how as she has grown a bit older her idea of beauty has evolved. I identify strongly with it. When I was 16, I was in awe of the popular sitcom Beverly Hills 90210. I wanted to look like one of the characters Brenda played by Shannen Doherty so badly that I had my hair cut and colored the same color.
But modern day me would never walk into a salon and ask to look like a celebrity. I’m more comfortable in my own skin and have come to realize that confidence is beautiful. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading Daniel Levitz’s heartwarming essay about his wife’s beauty which still awes him even though they are no longer nineteen-year-olds. I hope you will too!
And there are some additional articles in this issue that also celebrate beautiful things. Empty Bowls, a division of (914) Cares fights hunger locally and this year’s fundraiser in our community pulled in $120,000 in funds to help feed the 1 in 5 Westchester residents who are food insecure. Local award-winning Haiku poet Scott Mason sees the beauty and wonder in nature’s smallest creatures.
Luckily with spring approaching, our town and its surroundings serve as inspiration for his poetry. My favorite sign of spring is the chorus of small frogs called peepers that I hear in the small pond behind my house. My children love the sound of the ducks flapping their wings around in the water.
Here’s to a sweet and beautiful spring for all of you.
Enjoy,
P.S. I am so proud of our publisher Grace Bennett celebrating a 16th year of publishing Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk Magazines. I am also embracing our new slogan: ‘Sharing the Heart of your Community.’ In more news, the Inside Press also launched its latest hyperlocal magazine this month, Inside Pleasantville.
