PHOTOSHOOT/ PERIOD/ PIZZA

After many excited weeks of waiting, Instagram stalking and superstitious beauty rituals the day finally came! I got to meet my co-winner Marjorie Burnett who was flown in from Tennessee, Plus Model Magazine Editor and Co-Owner Madeline Jones, the designer Marla Wynne who designed/helped sponsor the contest, the amazing stylist Steffany Bready-Edwards and Marla's awesome assistant, Amanda. Marla cooked us dinner at her Upper West Side apartment Friday night and poured us champagne (and me tequila, typical) while we all got to know each other and strutted around in the coats we were modeling the next day.

We had our fitting on Saturday (where I of course, not only got my period early with no tampon handy but then also got stuck in a torrential downpour right before my 90 min subway ride back to Brooklyn, because #womanlife ) and then hauled out to Long Island City for the photoshoot first thing Sunday morning. I was so excited I couldn't sleep (or maybe it was just my uterus trying to ruin my life) and I had a mini-panic attack before I arriving because my skin was doing that super fun hormonal acne thing despite all of my delicate preparation. But when I got there, the makeup artist, an incredibly sweet and talented woman by the name of Tara Taylor put me at ease and covered everything up expertly. I didn't expect the look that they went with on me, but ended up loving it. The lipstick color was so dark it was scary at first, but then I warmed up to the high fashion vampire thing. As a side note, it also seems incredibly appropriate due to the time of the month. As the day progressed, 3 slices of pizza and several donut holes went into my mouth and faded the middle of my lips, which turned into this cool sort of Ombre situation, which everyone ended up loving even more.

Madeline's husband, Luke Jones, was the photographer for the day (he's the staff photographer for the Magazine). And while he thought I was an additional makeup artist no one had called because I showed up with two duffle bags full of shoes, he did end up coming around to me being a model :) While all this was going on, I had a great cheerleader in Tiffany Bank, a contributor to the magazine who not only took videos of me dancing with my model partner, but encouraged me in her own right, by twerking at me.

So all in all, the day was a success. I learned not to actually put my hands in pockets and that I tend to jump the gun if someone is trying to take a picture of me while walking with another model on the count of 3. Me? Excited to be there? No! I'm not high strung at all! I'm super grateful to have won the contest, and Marj and I will be on the September issue of Plus Model Magazine, the largest publication of Plus Size Fashion! WHOOP WHOOP!