BY MELISSA SIEGLER
STAFF WRITER
Two of the founders of Verily Magazine spoke March 16 to a group of Franciscan women on modesty, the natural beauty of women and how this beauty is misrepresented by the media.
Ashley Crouch and Janet Easter started off the talk by sharing their personal journeys that brought them to their love of fashion, the discovery of true feminine beauty and their desire to share it with other women.
Easter described her passion for the beauty of modesty. She said that choosing what one will and will not show breeds creativity.
“Fashion and beauty, rather than being something vain or something that can hide or mask you, if you use it in a way that’s a tool for expressing who you are and who you want to be, it’s incredible,” said Easter.
They expressed that the beauty of a woman is not limited to the impossible standards presented by the media and said how important it is to recognize this powerful deception.
“We need to be empowered to understand the narrative that the media shapes for us,” said Crouch. “Media is a storyteller and the media crops the storyline for us. The story that we read there is the story that we tell ourselves and the story that we tell ourselves becomes who we are and the way other people will see us as well.”
The message that Crouch and Easter conveyed during their talk was extremely well-received. Many of the attendees thought their message was eye-opening and inspiring.
“I had never considered this before…that the media portrays that our beauty is only good if it’s used for something,” said junior Sierra Prinzbach. “I was susceptible to that, too. I thought that because I’m beautiful I’m supposed to do x, y and z, be involved, look a certain way, but inherently in itself it (my beauty) is good.”
Senior Mikayla Balogh said, “I thought it was very informative. I was shocked that they were Catholic. I had read the magazine before and there were Christian themes, but they weren’t overt. I thought that was really cool and powerful and just a new evangelization put in motion. It’s a very powerful platform with fashion and relationships and just showing people that there is beauty in everyday life.”
Verily Magazine is a fashion and lifestyle publication that encourages women to be the truest, best version of themselves by breaking through the negative stereotypes and distorted ideas of femininity that are dominant in society. The magazine has a strict, no-Photoshop policy, and the pictures and articles are based on real, relatable women.