According to reports, over 1,000 people will become millionaires when Mark Zuckerberg rings the NASDAQ bell this morning and Facebook begins trading. I mean, what can you buy with 20 billion dollars? I guess a better question is what can you NOT buy with 20 billion dollars? Read TMZ’s full report here.

In Other News:

Happy birthday Tina Fey!

Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips are the final two on American Idol

Idol producer says Jennifer Lopez may actually leave the show–what do you think?

‘Annie’ cast– where are they now?

20 of our favorite looks from Madewell’s fall 2012 lookbook

16 things you hate about your body that men probably find sexy

We now have proof that Taylor Swift borrows clothes from her great grandmother’s trunk

Women describe what they won’t put in their vagina

DIY Nail Art Tutorial: Beach ball nails!

[lead image via vator.tv]

‘X Factor’ has finally closed on its final judge. The young Demi Lovato will sit along side Britney Spears, Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid. Demi’s struggles with bulimia and cutting have been strewn all over the media, and with millions watching ‘X Factor,’ the public eye will be focused on her once again. Will she be able to handle this kind of pressure? Some psychologists think it will be a great opportunity for Lovato to step up and be a role model, not only to the millions watching ,but to the show’s contestants as well. Read the full story here and tell us what you think about Demi as the new judge!

In other news:

Playboy tells the Tanning Mom to GET REAL– She will never pose for Playboy

Tanorexic Kim Kardashian and 21 other celebrity tanning disasters!

Get these celebrity looks for less! Jessica Alba, Carrie Underwood and Christa B. Aleln

Bad body image? 15 ways to improve your self esteem

‘Gossip Girl’ finale: Chuck vs Dan, but does it even matter?

Was Tim Burton ever a good director?

Can you tell what Micaela Schaefer’s dress is made out of? It looks like strips of video tape and lots of side boob…

The many mysterious ways Josh Hutcherson could have broken his nose!

Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart’s sheer, leg baring dress!

And so it is, just like we knew it would be. The end of the road for this 30 day exploration and experiment to accomplish a great feat of discipline for one as undisciplined as myself: 100 push ups per day. Did I make it? You damn skippy I did!

Week 4 presented all new challenges in the form of temptation. My schedule’s actually beginning to have slower moments in it, and that’s provided some flexibility in terms of when I’ve been choosing to do my reps of 35-40. I’d have thought more time would provide more opportunity, but the real opportunity was the opportunity to procrastinate.

When my schedule was more rigid, I knew I had a set window of time to do this in, so I didn’t f*ck around. However, with the wiggle room to negotiate with myself, “I’ll do it after re-watching the season finale of ‘Justified’” or whatever other awesome (or not so interesting) things I occupy my time with, I found myself getting down to the wire a couple of nights this week.

But I persevered. I kept up the clapping and the 3-point stances. I continued to vary the wideness of my arms positioning. I’m doing an average now of 105 push ups per day. More than the goal I’d set for myself! That’s a pretty fantastic feeling. Now the real question, do I look and feel any different? Well, you can check out my “After” pic and video below to judge for yourself.

The pecks are coming back! There’s more definition as well as tone as well. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to notice a stronger core and even the lightest of outlines of a budding 4-pack (if I keep this up and add some crunches, a 6-pack might just be in the cards!).

All in all, this challenge was incredibly inspiring for me. I didn’t know how much could be gotten out of 1 simple exercise. It goes to show that the only thing that stands in our path of finding ways to maintain and improve our health, is our own mindset. Once you know it’s possible and see the benefits, the motivation becomes stronger. You see the rewards of the work and the motivation becomes stronger. And you know what? I don’t care if my 30 days are up. I’m going to keep doing this, every day, because I know that I can, and I know I feel better for doing it.

Challenge Completed!

Dude Stinson

Some people say Adele is too fat (are you kidding me, Karl?), while others say Angelina Jolie is too skinny (what a tiny right leg to cause such a meme!). It seems so difficult for women to find an accurate definition of what the ideal female body image is, one that is sexy and attractive without being hazardous to our health. In a world with eating disorders, push-up bras and hair colors that rotate like pairs of underwear, does such a thing even exist?

Of all places, Israel is out to find the answer. Earlier this week, Israeli lawmakers passed a breakthrough ban on underweight models working in their fashion industry. The New York Daily News explained the details:

The new law requires models to produce a medical report, dating back no more than three months, at every shoot that will be used on the Israeli market, stating that they are not malnourished by World Health Organization standards. The U.N. agency uses a standard known as the body mass index – calculated by dividing weight by height — to determine malnutrition.

According to the World Healthy Organization, a BMI below 18.5 signifies malnutrition, meaning that a 5’8″ woman should weigh at least a healthy 119 pounds. The ban intends to reshape the industry’s definition of feminine beauty for Israeli teen girls, as 2 percent of those between 14 and 18 have severe eating disorders — a statistic common of other developed countries.

Even more so, the ban extends to those who also “look underweight” altogether, as any advertisement published for the Israeli market must also include a blatant disclosure that explains if the model featured has been digitally altered to appear thinner. Farewell, Photoshop!

Society’s criticism of the fashion industry’s hazardous practices are nothing new to the ears of designers and models — from abusing child labor laws and working conditions in sweatshops, beauty seems to be synonymous with pain in more ways than one. But Reuters reports that after two anorexic Latin American models died in 2006, various countries including Italy and India have already banned underweight models from the catwalk. And Israel’s latest bill against unattainable “beauty” may set a precedent for other countries with noteworthy fashion capitals.

“Beautiful is not underweight, beautiful should not be anorexic,” said Rachel Adato, one of the lawmakers who pushed the bill alongside Israeli fashion photographer and model agent, Adi Barkan. ”I look (back) 15 to 20 years ago, we shot models (sized) thirty-eight. Today, it’s twenty-four,” Barkan said. ”This is the difference between thin and too thin. This is the difference between death and life.“

I’m no critical gender studies major or body image expert by any means, but I am a female 20-something who has inevitably been swayed once or twice by the presentation of women in the media — just like all of you have. And I think this ban is a great thing. This piece of legislature is not only looking out for the health of the impressionable Israeli teens who define their beauty expectations by an unhealthy and often unattainable standard, but it’s also hoping to protect the well-beings of the models themselves. It can change how women see themselves, how women see other women, and how men see women too. It may put a few runway stompers out of work every once in a while, but it really could save a lot of people’s physical and social health in Israel. And it could carry on into other countries and possibly change the world’s presentation of women for the better.

Maybe there is no such thing as the ideal body image. But until the designers who create our clothes and the retailers who sell them accept that, we’re still all trying to fit into the same sizes and shapes. To be honest, I’d rather be on a permanent undie run than try to convince myself that my ass will fit into a pair of high-waisted denim shorts, and I sure as hell won’t let some underweight fashion model tell me that they’re any better than me for getting theirs to do so.

Would you support a ban on underweight models in the US? Or is this bill unfair for those who happen to “look underweight” or want to create fashion for women who are a smaller size?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

[Lead image via conrado/Shutterstock]

5 ways to pretend it’s summertime.

Anne Hathaway and Kelly Osbourne get dressed up.

The most obvious Oscar snubs.

Madonna makes a poor fashion choice.

Jimmy Fallon sued for hiring … a woman?

Must see fashion documentaries.

How to have healthy relationships.

Do you remember 2gether!?

It’s ok to fight the jiggle.

Everyone hates Barbie. Is it because she’s tall, leggy and disproportionately well-endowed? Or is it because her lashes are permanently curled to perfection and is always matched up with the incredibly good looking Ken? Banish the biatch from shelves for good (or at least hide them behind a bunch of much uglier toys). Do what you gotta do, Iran—this pernicious piece of Western culture is eroding morality codes everywhere!

Reuters reported earlier this week that Iranian government officials have recently been enforcing a ban on Barbie dolls as part of a “soft war” against decadent cultural influences. The public must be protected from what they believe to be eroding traditional Islamic values, and Barbie has been deemed un-Islamic since 1996 because the doll incites “destructive cultural and social consequences.”

“About three weeks ago they (the morality police) came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies,” said a shopkeeper in a toy shop in northern Tehran. Though the ban has existed for years, it had yet to be overtly enforced until a few weeks ago, when officials threatened to shut down shops that sold the doll. Instead, Barbies are being hidden behind long veils and other toys to still meet stores’ high customer demand.

Iran’s Barbie ban is this week’s Hot Button Issue, and it’s yet another unflattering angle for the flawless female form. Throughout American history, she’s already collected so much smack for promoting an unattainable standard of beauty and reinforcing a philosophy of white supremacy. And such a pervading definition of perfection is pretty persuasive when constantly played with from a young age, right?

Well…

I’m sorry, but part of me has to disagree. Maybe I’m one of the few American kids who grew up peacefully playing with Barbie dolls without wanting to actually look like them or feeling badly about myself when I looked in the mirror and was then reminded that we were so starkly different. I also didn’t get these feelings whenever I played with Cabbage Patch Kids, teddy bears, Tamagotchis or Super Mario Bros. And on a more serious note, I also never wished to physically identify with perfect actresses or cartoon princesses on TV (really, I think this might be just me who escaped this, but props to you if you did as well).

However, it’s hard to believe that a complete erosion of values or countless body image issues can route solely from one doll, one toy, one childhood token that was supposed to spark your imagination instead of brainwash you with harmful messages. Barbie is supposed to be anything and everything, from a hardworking stay-at-home mom to the President of the United States. And she literally could’ve been whatever you wanted her to be, right? I mean, she’s a doll! She didn’t come packaged with preset plot lines or a concrete back story that you had to stick to as a kid. Does she have to simply stay skin deep just because she’s pretty? Isn’t how we played with a toy more reflective of how we were raised or what other messages were shaping our worldviews until then, rather than a reflection of the toy itself? People create different things out of plain pieces of paper, and outcomes will vary depending on whose hand a weapon is in…it’s not completely up to the material itself, but the person who actually does something with it and then shelves away the blame. Why attribute so much child-raising responsibility to a piece of plastic purchased from a toy store?!

I acknowledge that there must be some kind of continuous ripple effect: one standard of beauty set another; little girls saw Barbies and grew up to become young Hollywood who in turn shaped young America who now has no idea what to do about it, even though there are now Barbies and dolls that reflect various physical characteristics across the board. And I really do apologize if you feel that your childhood companion set you up with an unrealistic physical standard and actually hurt you in the long run (seriously, I do understand that logic, and I really am sorry).

To be honest, I’m still shocked that kids these days—anywhere in the world—still have the capacity to play with Barbie dolls, a toy that doesn’t have any batteries, flashing lights or access to the Internet. In fact, the fact that this ban is still being circumvented by shopkeepers and customers alike actually kinda gives me hope for the dissipating attention spans of the children of the future. But that’s a whole ‘nother issue.

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

Learn to love your body

How you can stick to an exercise plan

Biebs mans up and agrees to take the test….the DNA test

10 fictional places we wish were real

Kate Gosselin proves why she’s mother of the year

Snooki debuts her scent…and this awesome video

Nothing like a guy in a suit

Who we’d approve as a real life Carmen Sandiego

Paris Hilton, motorcycle racer?

So you think you’re fat.

Rihanna gets hospitalized.

Kelly Clarkson is not a lesbian.

How old were you when you lost your virginity?

We know who the Slutty Pumpkin is!!

Take a peek at Leo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby.

What did Beyonce decide to wear for Halloween?

Someone feels sorry for you, Edward Cullen.

How to decorate a dorm room.

I always hated the day when we would watch movies involving a girl with an eating disorder in middle school and high school. Suddenly people would be leaning back in their chairs and furrowing their brows at me. I could never escape their concerned glances, the way they watched me eat my salad I had packed that day. Sometimes I’d even hear them whisper to each other about how I was unhealthy. Usually I would react by rolling my eyes and getting the greasiest pizza slice the cafeteria had to offer. This wouldn’t stop them from shaking their heads when I headed to the bathroom after lunch.

In middle school I weighed around seventy pounds so people assumed I had an eating disorder. They didn’t realize I was a year younger than most kids in my grade (I’m a September baby) and hadn’t developed as much as the other girls. They also didn’t consider the fact that I had been doing ballet since I was around four years old every day after school. I didn’t have an eating disorder, I just wasn’t growing yet.

As a freshman in high school, I was a size zero and weighed around ninety eight pounds. I had no hips and no boobs to speak of, so I thought I looked normal. Apparently that still wasn’t enough for people. My classmates didn’t understand that I was suffering from low self-esteem, but not enough to make me starve myself or throw up after eating.

To say I have never had low self-esteem would be a lie; I did struggle with my body. When I finally grew from a size zero to a size five in two years because my body finally developed was hard on me. I was only (and still am) one hundred and fifteen pounds, but that was a difficult adjustment for me. No, I was no longer the small girl, and many girls are smaller than me. So for a few years in high school I no longer had people monitoring my every move in the school cafeteria after videos shown in P.E.

Then I got to college, and when I began to work out both in between classes and at night some of my friends became concerned. They watched me eating smaller meals and there came that look again. I wasn’t starving myself; I was just trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Yes, I admittedly went through a period my senior year in high school where I would skip some meals because I felt fat, but my mother quickly noticed and got me back on the right track. It never developed into an eating disorder, and when I told my friends not to worry – that it was a short-lived (as in two weeks) phase – they just wouldn’t let it go. Finally, after my friends in college spent more and more time around me, they began to realize that I didn’t have an eating disorder just because I’m thin.

A thin woman can be just as healthy as a woman with a little meat on her bones, and just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I have an eating disorder. I am five foot four. I weigh one hundred and fifteen pounds. I eat more than three times a day and I wear extra small tops. I am very confident with my body image. I never count calories, I eat meat, and I will take a bucket of fried chicken and a large sweet tea over salad and water any day. It would be a lie to say I have never had a problem with my body image – what woman doesn’t? – but I’ve never been anorexic or bulimic.

Just as some women naturally have curves, some are just born thin. Both ends of the spectrum are judged constantly. You are either too skinny or too fat, and in both cases everyone watches you while you eat. So my question is: what makes a woman “healthy”? What is it going to take for people to stop worrying about you just because of your weight? Without knowing my lifestyle, it isn’t really fair to make an assumption about my health. Just because I’m thin doesn’t mean I’m not healthy, either, because I do eat healthy for the most part, and I work out every week. This is just who I am and I’m sick of being the subject of whispers between girls.

You may not realize it, but sometimes the “skinny” girls feel just as uncomfortable as those women shunned for their curves. Let’s do everyone a favor and stop focusing so much on weight and let everyone, regardless of their size, just be.

[We're all about celebrating a positive body image here at CollegeCandy and many of our readers claim the same thing. However we've noticed that while many commentors are quick to jump to the defense of curvy women, they're even quicker to accuse skinny women of having an eating disorder. This is one (skinny) CollegeCandy writer's reaction.]

[This post was originally written by Christie- NC State]

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month Tiffany spent a month at Outward Bound and challenged her physical limits. This month, Ashley's going to try to stop hating on her body so much. Can she do it!? Could you?]

This week I got some outside help for my challenge that was very interesting and very helpful. Coincidentally, I had mandatory work meeting/training title “Overcoming Negativity in the Work Place”. Everyone had to go and no one was looking forward to it. The training turned out not to be so bad because it was nothing like what we all assumed it would be. The lady training us/giving the presentation studied psychology and neurobiology and pretty much gave us a 101 on negativity and the brain. I learned that negativity is a natural response in the brain and a bunch of other brain related information. It was super interesting to get the 411 on where our negativity stems from and it put a lot of my negativity issues in perspective.

So what does this mean in terms of this challenge you ask? For me, a lot.

First of all, it made me realize that although I want to change, I don’t want to beat myself up for beating myself up (being negative). Though I think my case of negativity is a special one because of how harsh I can be towards my body (and that it in turn effects my body image and is a reflection of my insecurities), I’m definitely not alone or abnormal for having these negative thoughts. Second of all, it reassured me that I have a perfectly functioning, normal brain and I don’t have to spend any more time worried if there’s a wire loose or anything. Also, if the trainer who knows all about the science of why we’re negative creatures hasn’t perfected controlling her negativity, I surely shouldn’t expect to do so. And lastly, we had to partake in a semi-silly but useful activity that I decided to carry over into my challenge. Here it is…

Score Card Game:

All I had to do was keep a tally of the negative and positive things I said for this week. For every positive comment, I multiplied my score by five and for every negative comment I subtracted my score by five. The point of the game in the training was to make sense of how effective and exponentially positive positivity is (as it spreads to those around you) and to see that while negativity is bad, we can offset it with positivity. I chose to count both positive and negative comments I made about my body and those I said about others. This worked out well because I also purchased a new gym membership so I had plenty of times to comment on my own body and those around me.

All in all, I LOST TRACK! I know what you’re thinking. I can’t even follow the rules of my own game, right? WRONG! I followed the rules and kept track of my comments and my score. But because I was keeping a score, I was consciously deciding to keep things more positive. My score got up so high that it was becoming difficult to keep multiplying by five without a calculator (social science major here). My own version of the Score Card Game worked. Even though my initial incentive was to stay positive for a high score, it lead to realize that it wasn’t that hard to make more positive than negative comments about my body. I’m trying to specifically change the way I treat and talk about my body — but you could use this tactic for many other things.

My 4^th week was more of a stepping stone than I thought it would be. As more and more things are “setting in”, I’m realizing that it’s less about me getting somewhere or achieving an actual thing, and more about realistic change and balance.  I’d hate to blow this out of proportion as if it’s a big deal or party worthy, but I do feel that I’ve come a long way. I understand now that my sarcasm and negativity hurts me more than it could ever hurt anyone else. I know me better than anybody else, so my comments come from a very real, hurtful place. For me, It’s easy to blow off negative or hateful comments from a stranger, or even from someone you know but you don’t really care about, but it’s really hard to remain unscathed by words coming from someone who knows you very well. I am with myself all the time, I have no choice but to either be my own encouraging, positive, best friend or to be my own worst enemy.

I can firmly say I’m not going with the latter on this one. I do love my body and all that I’m workin’ with!