The first time I ever saw a beautiful woman, it was on Fifth Avenue in New York City. I had just been to the Red Door Salon. People were smiling at me. It was starting to freak me out. How do all these people know I just spent $65 to get my hair blown out?
Then I turned around and realized I was standing next to a supermodel. I’m not sure which one. Does it even matter? She was the thinnest, fittest human being I’ve ever seen. She had natural sombre highlights before “sombre” was a word at any local hair salon in America.
The second time I saw truly beautiful women was also in New York City. I was leaving work and traffic was at a complete standstill. That’s because Korean Air flight attendants were lining up to board a bus on 42nd Street outside of the old Helmsley Hotel.
Police sirens wailed in the distance. It was rush hour, and this traffic jam was out of control. But it wasn’t just the street. Even the traffic on the sidewalk stopped. These women, in their light blue uniforms, were stunning. Skin the color of milk, hair so thick and shiny they could star in a shampoo commercial. I stood there and was grateful for the opportunity to swoon, as well.
The third time I saw beautiful women was in Michigan, stepping off the escalator and walking to my office. My building was hosting a pharmaceutical representative conference. A group of 50 new hires, all young women over 5’9″, rounded a corner and headed to a meeting room.
In another life, they could have been surfers or beach volleyball players. Each woman donned a short navy skirt and long jacket. They wheeled impressive pharmacological suitcases, and the act of wheeling a heavy container made them all look super-tall with bold shoulders.
Grown men gasped. Office traffic stopped. As they walked past, I thought, “Am I really this short?”
Keep all of those beautiful women in mind. I was just warned that I might not want to attend a tech and marketing event called Collision Conference in New Orleans, next week, because it’s probably not my cup of tea as a middle-aged technology founder and CEO. The conference is full of three things that might offend me: alcohol, startups with hard-charging cultures, and pretty girls trying to establish their careers.
Not a lot of diversity in expression, thought, or behavior.
That’s an intimidating scene for some people. But I’ve been on the conference circuit for ten years, and I know what happens when some people come together and collectively lose their bearings due to the disinhibiting factors of travel and liquor. And I know what it’s like when the rest of us live our daily lives, too. We attend conferences, act responsibly, and we do okay for ourselves.
And just how pretty are these girls, yo?
I’m laughing out loud as I write this, but is Collision Conference full of women who are 5th Avenue pretty? Are they Korean Airlines pretty? Could they be colleague beach volleyball turned pharmaceutical rep pretty? And are they really using that power to steer the careers in a positive direction?
As a feminist and a storyteller, I want to know.
I’ve seen symmetrical beauty in this world. I’ve witnessed the power of women who can stop vehicular and pedestrian traffic just by being themselves. I know what it’s like when beauty is paired with intelligence. So, if there are really a bunch of pretty women on the floor of this conference using their magic to fund their start-ups, I gotta see this phenomenon in person.
I suspect it’s just normal people of all ages trying to get their hustle on and fund sketchy tech businesses. In that way, the event will be right up my alley. I’ll be on Twitter, and I’ll keep you posted.