What is a REAL Woman?

NOTE: This blog is repurposed from the Tallie Row Blog

Recently I shared our boutique's mission of offering REAL clothes to REAL women with REAL bodies within a networking group and was asked the question, 'What does that mean?  What is REAL?'   I had to pause for a second and reflect on it, to be honest.  Of course, every woman is REAL.  Every body is REAL.  I knew what our intent was with our mission, yet it was never meant to insinuate that some women and some body types were not real.  It wasn't intended to bash anyone or anything.

And so I paused...and asked myself the same question.  What DID I mean?

I think there is a stigma attached to boutique shopping.  I also think there is a stigma attached to social selling.  When I look around at some of the premier boutiques and also some of the highest traffic sites or social media accounts, they may be *visually* appealing, but quite honestly they are not an accurate representation of the average American woman.

* our lives are not perfectly manicured like the IG feeds would have them look

* our homes are not spotless or staged for the perfect 'newsfeed' worthy photo or IG story

* our kids are not perfectly behaved, nor are they in matching clothes

* and frankly the average size of the American woman is NOT a 2 or a 4 - it's a 14

We wanted to create and foster a platform and message that speaks to the average (aka REAL) woman who is beautiful just as she is, without the perfectly manicured life, home, and body.  We also wanted her to know that she IS welcome and she WILL find things that fit her here - for any occasion. 

I love that social media and social selling is widening the spectrum of beauty, yet I think we need to do MORE to foster and encourage it.  No one wants nor likes perfect.  Perfect isn't real.  We want women to show up just as they are - messy house, mismatched kids, beautiful body and ALL.

So that is what we mean by REAL women with REAL bodies and REAL lives.  Those that may be messy, may be a bit chaotic, definitely are not perfect, but are filled with honesty, truth and most of all love.