It’s the dark secret every woman knows: If you’re pretty, life is easier. Pretty privilege explains why the pretty girls get to be homecoming queen, class president, and girlfriends of athletes. Pretty privilege explains you spent so much time in front of the mirror (or your phone camera) as a teenager, trying to make yourself look just right. Pretty privilege explains why the Instagram accounts of hot female celebrities like Selena Gomez or Emily Ratajkowski number in the tens of millions… While the accounts of plain but inspirational women like Gloria Steinem or Malala are lucky to break a million. Beauty is bankable. And now science has proven it. Economist Daniel S. Hamermesh and colleague Jeff Biddle were the first to study the impact of attractiveness on wages. (They invented the field of  pulchronomics , the economic study of beauty, in the process.) They discovered—no surprise—that  attractive people  do  have it easier . If you’re more attractive than...

  Today, I would like to share an article by Amy Waterman on her famous program  The Pleasure Principle. It’s time to talk about one of those things that would seem to be self-evident, but isn’t. We all want to live an amazing life. An incredible life. A BRILLIANT life. But what does that brilliant life even look like? The goal of Your Brilliance is to help women live their most brilliant life. That’s what I’m here to help you do. Those of you who’ve followed me for a while know that I believe a brilliant life involves feeling confident, enjoying your career, loving your body, and experiencing deep and enriching relationships. But none of those things are easy. And they can get even harder to achieve as you grow older. When you’re in your twenties, a brilliant life seems completely within your grasp. You have so many ideas. So many ambitions. So many plans! Then life hits. You split from the man you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with. You take...

Did you know you’re in a box? Simply by being a woman, people put you in a box… The Woman Box. Because you’re a woman, you’re supposed to be: Nurturing Empathetic A good listener Caring Gentle Compassionate Loving Emotionally attuned Giving, and most of all… Feminine . And if you break those expectations, you get judged. You might even hear: “Women are not supposed to be: Loud Strong Logical Decisive Authoritative Powerful Heroic Leaders Innovators, and most of all… Masculine.” Because if a loud, strong, powerful woman goes on a date, and she refuses to squeeze herself into the Woman Box, no man will love her and she’ll be alone forever. He’s in a Box, Too We women are not always aware we live inside a box. But men are. Men are taught from an incredibly young age that they must stay inside their box or risk being called a  wuss , a  pansy , a  girl , or worse. Men live inside what’s known as the Man Box. The Man Box is even stricter than the Woman Box. The Man B...

Where do you go to meet guys? For some, that’s the bar scene. Sure, it’s not ideal, but it  is  a place full of men. For others, it’s the gym. Or church. Or the grocery store. Or even the office. Whatever your preferred location, imagine it down to the last detail. What does it smell like? What sounds do you hear? When you find yourself intrigued by a guy, what do you do? If you’re like most humans, before you even think about saying hi or trying to catch his attention, the  very first  thing you do is stress out. At least a little. After all, you’re about to put yourself out there. Maybe he’ll express interest, and maybe he won’t. You’re risking rejection, which is always painful, even if it’s from someone you just met. Flirting with someone when you have no idea if they’ll flirt back is stressful. But a recent study done by the University of Kansas suggests there’s a relatively easy way to take stress levels down a few notches. Researchers found an e...

  An article from  AMY WATERMAN[1] "Back when I was a teen, I discovered I had a mysterious gift. Strangers would suddenly strike up conversations with me. Whether I was at the train station, at the theater, on an airplane , or on some school trip, some complete stranger would start talking to me. At first, it freaked me out, because it only seemed to happen to me. It didn’t happen to any of my other classmates. I felt a bit weird to be talking to this strange person while all of my classmates were casting odd glances at me, wondering how I knew them! It took me a long time to figure out what was going on. I didn’t ACTUALLY have some special gift. Rather, I’d inadvertently hit on one of the very best strategies for meeting people in real life… Odd One Out It took me some time to discover why random strangers would start talking to me, especially because I was—and still am—an introvert who normally has no desire for talking with people I don’t know! But what I realize...

Have you looked on Tinder lately? Tons and tons and TONS of men… But hardly any dead ringers for Mr. Right. As you scroll through profiles on your dating app of choice, you sigh. Where are all the high-quality men hiding? It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. You FINALLY connect with someone who seems interesting… And 9 times out of 10, he’s a major letdown. This  is why you’re still single. If you wanted to lower your standards, you could have had a boyfriend by now. But you don’t just “want a boyfriend.” You want a  partner. You want someone in your life who’s kind, mature, strong, respectful, emotionally stable, financially solvent, able to commit, and ready for the work relationships require. How many guys like that do you know? High Quality Men Are Hard to Find High quality men are thinking the same thing. They’re wondering where all the kind, mature women are, who are respectful, emotionally stable, financially solvent, able to commit, and ready for the work relation...