Pocahontas

So I’ve noticed this bit of a “Describe Yourself In 3 Fictional Characters” challenge/trend surface on the internet lately. And I loved it and instinctively wanted to turn it into a blog post.

As a writer I have a ton of fictional characters that I relate to and feel like somehow mirror my personality. I love identifying bits of myself in characters I see written and portrayed on screen. I couldn’t decide so I did 4, #ICheated #SorryNotSorry. (well Pocahontas is based on a real woman so I guess I didn’t cheat, there’s three fictional here!)

So here goes…

Haley James (Pre-Scott)

Portrayed By Bethany Joy Lenz

TV Show: One Tree Hill

If you’ve followed this blog before, you know my obsession with this character. It is real and she is probably my most beloved tv character. Since the first day I started watching One Tree Hill, she was the one I felt was most like me. She was the shy, smart girl who was way beyond her years, wanted to help everyone, had this keen sense between right and wrong, wasn’t popular but had her friends and family who she would do anything for and dressed kind of funky. She is my spirit animal. As later seasons came, she of course got cooler, started dating a jock, made friends with the in crowd, dressed better/different, got married in high school, and became this total rock star, made some mistakes, redeemed herself, had a baby in high school, and then later on became an English teacher and co-owner of the new and improved Karen’s Café. All while looking flawless the whole damn time. Which goes to show you, why I really identified with her in the first season mostly. As much as I love Haley James Scott, Haley James was simple, was real and her life seemed normal. Without all the fancy pants stuff, at her root Haley James-Scott or not has always had a strong moral code and a big heart and for that alone I will always be a fan. #ThatJeanJacketTho

Pocahontas

Voice-Irene Bedard, Singing Voice-Judy Kuhn

The Disney Film

While all the little girls wanted to be Cinderella, and Snow White, I related most to Pocahontas. To me, is was the Disney Princess who I felt looked most like me. For starters her olive complexion and her free spirit. Her barefoot adventures and love of sunflowers and jewelry and feathers. I love the story, I love her roots and how she knows who she is and knows that her family her everything. She makes decisions based on what’s best for her, she’s independent despite the many trying to decide what’s best for her. She explores, she is curious. The Indian culture has always fascinated me, and I have always felt a pull to it. She is probably the reason why.

Raven Baxter

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Portrayed By Raven Symone

TV Show: That’s So Raven

FreeForm shows old school Disney shows late at night and once night I caught That’s SO Raven on TV, and I couldn’t help but laugh and see a bit of myself in her. Her crazy fashion choices, I have had my moments. #BlueLipStick #FlowersInMyHair #FurrySweaters Her impromptu dancing, her absurd slang. It’s all me. #YANASTY #OHSNAP I love her, and I too at times feel psychic. #SHHHH 😉 Also can we just state that Raven paved this way for curvy girls to feel good about themselves. She wasn’t perfect, she was curvy and loud and fun and colorful and she was SUCCESSFUL! Raven is most like my younger self, and I think she comes out still every once in a while.

Jane Villanueva

Portrayed By Gina Rodriquez

TV Show: Jane the Virgin

Let’s put aside the whole baby daddy/mama drama, that is this show. Yes Jane was accidentally artificially inseminated and instantly was thrown into motherhood way ahead of her planned out life’s schedule with a guy’s baby, who she never expected to come back into her life. That is the juicy stuff and my life is nothing like hers in that sense. But for some reason in a lot of other ways, Jane may be the character I relate most too. She’s always the responsible one, but when she messes up she owns up to it, and when she let’s loose, her beauty shines. She’s an older 20’s. She is a curvy Latina, with a heart of gold and good morals and extremely close to her family. She believes in love and is a hopeless romantic-not to mention a soap opera fan too. My favorite part-she’s a writer and she is constantly drifting off into her own world, as she stars in her scenes as she writes them. Her morals are very similar to mine and I adore her character as a whole, because everything I mentioned about her holds true for me too. She spontaneous dances too, so I mean we’re twins who need to meet and be best friends.

As you can tell I love seeing strong, determines, driven, independent, caring, loving, kind, big heart of gold female characters. They are what inspires me to write and to be a better woman.

-<3-

*I do not take credit for any images used.*

When I was a kid, I wasn’t too much into Disney or the abundance of Disney princesses. Don’t get me wrong I watched the movies, but I wasn’t a fanatic. However, there were two princesses I found I favored; Pocahontas, and Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Putting a fantasy into reality, I transformed myself into a mermaid this weekend for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

I have only been one other time before, and I just The-Little-Mermaid-Ariel[1] remember thinking this would be so much more satisfying if I were to join in the dressing up festivities. Because that’s all you see there. An array of colors, and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it is crowded and you need to either have patience, be really outgoing/carefree or be drunk. 😉 I was none of those and I survived so, you can too! (shout out to my anxiety keeping cool! #claustrophiacity) And did I mention, someone stepped on my shoe causing it to break…yea that wasn’t fun. But thankfully it was a cool day, a little sun would have been nice, but I wasn’t complaining, because no one wants to stand for hours, standing in a crowd of people, in the heat.

The parade is funky, it’s definitely eccentric and anything goes. It never fails, you will see boobs, it’s just a given. But I will say that what I realized was that the parade has a message far greater than just what you see at it’s surface. It’s about acceptance. About having an open mind, appreciating everyone, and everything they are. Being proud of your weirdness, or uniqueness. There is no shame in being who you are. That’s what I got from my second experience there. And I think that in itself is a beautiful thing.

So here’s me transforming myself into a mermaid esque character. With the help of makeup, some glitter, a few accessories and a quick little DIY.

You didn’t think I’d leave you without some crappy cellphone pics did you? 😉 One of these days I’ll get my act together.

Ariel listen to Sebastian, “the human world is a mess…”

Listen as you read…

BECOMING MERMAID…

HAIR & MAKEUP

Michelle *The Mermaid

My eye makeup was made up of a mixture of purples, greens, blues, and pinks. Then using purples and blues I contoured my forehead, cheeks, and jaw line. A little bronzer and coral colored blush were a nice touch too. I used jewels and glitter to add some “scale” affects to the sides of my face. Then I put some glitter along my collar bone too.

Ariel knows best.

For my hair, I washed it the night before and braided it before going to bed. It dried while in the braid, and I left it that way as I did my makeup, then I took it out and it left me with these really cool crimped waves. Very beachy, very mermaid-y. So I didn’t have to do too much, I just added some mousse, and dry shampoo for extra volume and curl. I sparingly curled a few pieces too with my curling wand, mostly just my bangs to frame my face more. Then a bunch of hair spray, before finally having a reason to use the teal colored hair chalk I bought a few years ago. (my hair is dark so it doesn’t last too long, but it gives it this gray blue textured look, so its worth it) I also clipped in a teal hair extension, that matched the chalk, a little more hairspray and the added touch of my starfish hairclip and my hair was mermaid ready.

OUTFIT

As for my outfit, I just went with some flowy/bohemian, blue pieces. A very free spirited, comfortable look. And with my hair and makeup and accessories, I think it came together nicely. I didn’t have anything too mermaid-y, so I worked with what I had. This is if you want an understated mermaid look. (although not much is understated at that parade, but I still felt like I did my part) 😉

Blue’s your color girl

ACCESSORIES & NAILS

Glitter, Jewels, Hair chalk, Nail Polish, Pearls, Oceanic colored bracelets and rings. And a DIY starfish hair clip.

OPI Nicole’s “Mer-maid for each other” is a shiny metallic green,

perfect for mermaid inspired nails.

Walgreens actually sells a Little Mermaid nail line, that I wish I would have known about before buying my other nail color. But either way it worked out.

Where I got some of my ideas from…

LINK

LINK

Gotta love YouTube, you wouldn’t believe how many people want to be mermaids! 😉

DIY starfish hairclip

This was the last piece of the puzzle, I wanted a starfish for my hair so bad, and after searching and searching, my mom was the one who found a package of starfish for like a dollar in a 99 cent store. I was super excited. So then I found some other hair clips to work into my hair piece. The cream colored net was attached to a bow hair clip, so I just removed it and then the actual hair clip used to clip it into my hair was from a big flower clip. So I just hot glued all the necessary pieces and voila! I think the net really made the difference, it made it look very ocean inspired. The starfish had a bit of a weight to it so I just used two extra bobby pins to fasten it into my hair, for a better hold.

Some pics from the parade…

Oh and I ran into some friends of mine…

Princesses Unite 😉

Mermaid Michelle swimming off…(see what I did there…) Got my lemonade, shishkabob and corndog. I really enjoyed my time on dry land and getting to be a part of your world. Now time to get back to my sea friends.

“Legs are meant for jumping, dancing…”

You are so right Ariel!

There you have it, my quick, crappy pictured Mermaid inspired look. Try it out! It’s super fun, except be prepared to be covered in glitter and hair chalk. But it’s all in good fun!

So Ariel has Flounder, and Sebastian.