Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to make a professional appearance at a Girls' Club out here to help support their "Girls' Day" event, a day of empowering young girls and providing positive reinforcement as they embark on the path to becoming young women. All I had to do was sit at a table with other female "celebs" and sign autographs. My autographing comrades included a ten year old beauty queen, a 17 year old rising basketball star, two women from the Air Force, a female local news anchor, and the female winner of a cooking reality show. I was initially a little shy about venturing solo into a completely unknown situation, without my castmates, outside of the regular one-mile radius encompassing the theater and the apartment complex. But I was so happy I went. The girls were just adorable. The day started with a presentation in the club auditorium, during which about 200 girls were paired with 200 female adult volunteers to form teams, and then the teams competed in several events for various prizes. We didn't see any of this, we were seated in the lobby area to receive the traffic of girls as they made their way from the competitions to the line for picture taking with the UNLV mascot in front of a cardboard castle. What was funny, and kind of touching, was the fact that most of the girls didn't have any idea who I was, but they still wanted my autograph, because if one girl gets an autograph, then they ALL have to get one too! Nothing like that female adolescent competitive spirit to boost your popularity! There were actually some girls, however, who had seen the HBO film we shot, and then some girls who had actually seen the current show in Vegas, which was a nice surprise. The other funny thing was that while most of the girls exhibited reticence in asking for my autograph, either out of trained politeness ("be a good girl") or tween withdrawal, there were some girls who were already comfortable with standing out and just being who they are. And you could see the adults that they would become, how they would fit in the character make-up that is the "grown-up" world. Like the few who were very outgoing and bubbly - the social butterflies. Or the one who was laid-back and all smiles and would turn out to be that best-friend you could rely on for a strong shoulder to cry on and a good cheering-up. There was the girl who had to know exactly who we were, what the show was about, very matter-of-fact, the investigator - doctor or lawyer, maybe? Oh, who knows, but it was funny to see how we are who we are going to be (give or take, of course) long before we even realize it.

I ended up spending most of my down time talking with my seated neighbor, the reality-show winner. A fellow native New-Yorker (Long Island), she was really very cool and I was all the more impressed with her appearance at the event that morning - she learned just the day before that a good friend of hers took her own life. The fact that she was still there, signing autographs, engaging the girls in conversations, was really inspiring and a true show of strength. In fact, she had to leave the event early to appear at a "Make A Wish" function. A veritable, positive role-model for the young girls. Now that's what girls are made of!