An Open Letter to Marilyn Monroe

As a young girl I was always a performer. I was an only child with a huge imagination and I would dress up every night in sparkly costumes and dance on the kitchen counter for my parents during supper. They loved it. I was enrolled in dance classes and performed the star in the school plays. I thrived on stimulating attention and creativity. I didn’t like negativity and I surrounded myself with friends who were like me. I looked up to the Disney stars like Hillary Duff and Miley Cyrus and for awhile they gave me inspiration to live my little rockstar dream. The dream that led to me singing at the annual neighbors culdesac party and play the role of Charlie in Willy Wonka. I was consumed by the spotlight.

When I heard of Marilyn I was in love. I loved that white dress and that huge smile. I was young and didn’t know exactly who or what she was but I wanted to be her. She emulated stardom and Hollywood. She was everything I wanted to be at a young age, even though I didn’t know much about her. (Later in life I learned that she was seen as more of a sex symbol which I will go into, and I still look up to her all the same).

To be a kind of beautiful that consumes a room and captures everyone’s attention is just so entrancing. I was the kind of girl that lost attention easily to the typical charms of Disney princesses and Barbie dolls. To me, Marilyn was the kind of influence that never lost its charm.

I was always told as a young girl that I should model and be on TV. I loved hearing things like that even though my ego probably didn’t need to hear it at such a young age. Then to see a light like Marilyn who exhumed everything I thought of when I thought of Hollywood and glamour, I was amazed.

Fast forward to highschool and I was still the attention seeking girl that danced on the table for my parents. I would get in trouble in class for talking too much or for smarting the teacher. I often got in trouble for wearing clothes that were seen as “promiscuous” and “too revealing” for highschool. I had friends but often felt I was drifting through life like a fairy, whisking my way without much thought or care. I was my own Marilyn. I loved attention and I didn’t think that getting it from boys was a problem. I was the class flirt and I was okay with that. A Marilyn quote that always resonated with me was “It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” It was so true to me. To me life was timeless, and to live (or love) with limits was like seeing the world in black and white. I didn’t care what people thought of me because my world was my own. “We are all stars, and we deserve to twinkle.”

Marilyn taught me not to take myself too seriously. She taught me that I was gifted by being a woman and that beauty was irreplaceable. My gift of being a woman was something that I loved and it is something I think all of us girls can learn.

No matter what shape, size, sex, or color women are beautiful. We forget that our own gift is what we truly love to do and what lies within us. “Always be yourself. Retain individually: listen to the truest part of yourself.” Marilyn gets it! We spend so much time trying to mold into a world that doesn’t get us in the first place. Spend extra time today doing something for you. I know I have forgotten what it feels like to dress us and dance on the counter like no one is watching. I think Marilyn would be proud if I did that today. She would want us women to be undeniably ourselves. And if that means flirting a little more or wearing extra lipstick than so be it.

“Be real, be yourself, be unique, be true, be honest, be humble, be happy...”

Thank you Marilyn. We love you.