Here we are back in swimsuit season when body-insecurity
and beach cover-ups are at an all-time high.
We all feel those judging eyes looking our way whether
we’re on the beach or simply enjoying a ladies’ lunch with friends.

We’ve all been there. You know, out to lunch, with the girls from work or Bible study, where you have to be the first one to order. After scouring the menu and scanning the faces of the women at the table, especially the skinny ones, you order: “I’ll have a grilled chicken sandwich; hold the mayonnaise, please.” There. You did it. Ordered something halfway healthy…grilled chicken, even gave up the Duke’s mayo for show. Then the waitress blurts out, “Do want fries with that, Sugah?” All eyes avert to you in slow motion as you reluctantly ask for the alternatives to fries and order fresh fruit.

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.”
— Robert Browning

I believe the majority of the greatest lessons we learn in life come from our mothers. Not all of us have the fortune of a good mother’s wisdom and love, but most of us have experienced wonderful lessons from strong motherly figures somewhere along the way.

For years, I have written about how our parents teach us how we want to be and how we don’t want to be. I stand by this and firmly believe both are equally important lessons. Of course my mother had some ways and traits that taught me how I didn't want to be, but her positive lessons far outweigh those.

We are in the middle of spring, which, by all accounts, means we should have shaken off the winter blues by now and begun feeling the sense of lightness that comes with the beautiful days of perfect weather, bright sunshine, and bursting blooms.

Somehow, I’m not feeling it, yet. Are you?

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as who
you become by achieving your goals.”
— Zig Ziglar —

 Pink Magazine is celebrating 22 years this month! It’s hard to believe 22 years has passed since I hesitantly turned in my two-weeks’ notice at the last corporate job I ever held to start my own company—Millen Publishing Group, LLC. Pink was born at my home in Hilton Head Plantation in a small, converted office next to the kitchen. I had no idea what to expect, and I really had no solid game plan on how to get my idea out of my head, onto paper, and into the hearts of women across Beaufort County. I believe the thing I had going most for me was I didn’t overthink it. I just did it, in no particular order, and nonetheless, the first issue of Pink Magazine came out on April 1, 2004. It was exciting, and before I knew it, its momentum was rolling, and I was on the way.

Let’s talk about reading. I’ll admit right upfront I’m a avid reader, usually logging more than 50 books per year. I’ve always thought if I could have a superpower, I would want to be able to teleport like Samantha in Bewitched. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to snap your fingers and be in Paris for lunch and back in the Lowcountry by suppertime? But if I could have a second superpower, I want to be able to hold a book to my head and it soak into my brain with full understanding in under a minute. My to-be-read list would never be backlogged!