Expressionista: How to Express Your True Self Through (and Despite) Fashion

By Jackie Walker and Pamela Dittmer McKuen

You are more than what you wear—but what you wear is still important! A tween guide to personal fashion and flair.

What you wear can be a powerful form of self-expression, and true style is about dressing to express yourself so you feel self-assured and confident in any situation. Fashion is also a great way to discover your unique personality—and show it off to the world!

Expressionista covers everything you need to know about fashion, including how to identify your own Fashion Persona (Classic, Natural, Romantic, Dramatic, Trend Tracker, or Mood Dresser), set up an awesome closet, track trends, shop on a budget, dress for your body type, and more. Packed with tips and quotes from fashion icons as well as fun quizzes and resources galore, this book is must-have personal style inspiration!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aladdin/Beyond Words
• Release date: Sep 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781442485235

Jackie Walker

Jackie Walker appears as the “Dr. of Closetology” on Fox TV’s Good Day Tampa Bay. Judie and Jackie have been in the fashion business for more than twenty years, and they lecture together nationally.

Book preview

1

How You Look Is How You Feel:

Good Clothes Days and Bad Clothes Days

Today is another day for your inner goddess to step out and shine.

—JENNIFER LOPEZ

Close your eyes and think about the most wonderful day in your life so far. Perhaps it was a birthday or a graduation or some other celebration. Perhaps you won an award or a competition. Imagine that you are reliving that day right now. Let your mind wander through all the sights and sounds.

Write in your notebook or on your computer about the occasion and how it made you feel.

Now go back in your mind and remember how you looked that day: What did you wear? Think about your clothes, your shoes, your jewelry, your hair, possibly even your nails. How did you decide what to wear for the occasion? Was it your decision, or did someone tell you? Did you buy something new or put together a new look from pieces in your closet? Did you borrow anything from your mom, sister, or friend? Do you wish you had worn something else?

Write about what you wore and how you felt about it.

We’re asking these questions for a good reason. There is a strong connection between how we look and how we feel about ourselves. When we look good, we feel good. When we feel good, the day seems brighter. We’re happier. We’re more agreeable. We’re nicer to ourselves and to other people. People like to be around us and that makes us even happier. Isn’t that what we all want?

The opposite is also true. When we don’t feel great about ourselves, it’s often because we don’t think we look good. It’s like having a Bad Hair Day, only worse. You’ve heard of Bad Hair Days, haven’t you? It’s when your hair doesn’t go the way you want it to, or you don’t have time to style it, or the rain makes your hair go frizzy or flat. All you can think about is how awful your hair looks.

Here’s how your thinking might go: You’re sure other people are looking at you, and they are thinking about how bad your hair looks. Next thing you know, you’re putting yourself down even more, thinking about how stupid and ugly you are. You don’t want to talk to anyone or answer questions in class because more people will look at you. And if people look at you, they will see your hair, and then they will think you are stupid and ugly too. All you want to do is run and hide.

Write something nice about your hair, so the next time you feel this way, you can remember what you love!

Bad Hair Days happen with clothes too. A Bad Clothes Day is when the leggings you want to wear are in the laundry, or you can’t find your favorite T-shirt, or your sister left the house wearing your clogs. So you wear your mom’s clogs, but you hate the color, and she doesn’t have any doodads in the holes. Not cute ones, anyway.

Another Bad Clothes Day could be when you go to a sleepover and someone makes a joke about your little-girl bunny pajamas.

Or on the first day of school, you wear a smart little sundress, and everyone else is wearing jeans. And you’re so embarrassed!

EXPRESSIONISTA QUOTE:

Everybody should feel beautiful. No one should feel ugly.

Write about a Bad Clothes Day you had. What made it a Bad Clothes Day?

It’s perfectly natural to get down on yourself once in a while. Just don’t do it often or stay there. Even the most secure Expressionistas have their down times, including some of the most talented and beautiful people you can think of. Lady Gaga has often said she felt like a freak when she was growing up. Taylor Swift says she felt like an outcast because she loved country music, which was unpopular in her school. And Janet Jackson of the fabulous Jackson family has talked about her brothers’ painful teasing. Because of them, she believed her smile was hideous. Janet literally banged her head against the wall until she cried because she felt so unattractive. It’s hard to imagine because she is so beautiful and

Reviews for Expressionista

[heatherms · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a cute book for tween and teenage girls. It helps them figure out what their own personal style is (Classic, Natural, Romantic, Dramatic and Trend Tracker). Once the reader figures out what their style is, the book then goes into helping the reader figure out what needs to be in their closet, what is the best way to shop, and how to put it all together. Here and there are personal stories such as the two sisters who had very different styles. The story illustrates how this affected their relationship and how having different styles wasn't a bad thing.Tween and teenage girls will definitely like this book. I can see them quizzing each other and having fun figuring out which persona each one is. It has some good tips in it such as how to organize your closet and how to more effectively shop for your style. The book does well with combining the practical with real life stories and about wearing your personal style with pride!**I received this book from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for a review. This did not affect my review in any way.**