She Looks Perfect on Paper

She looks perfect on paper.
"But she's not real."

Her red hair reminds you of strawberries.
"But she's not real".

Her legs run for miles of the page.
"BUT SHE'S NOT REAL"

Her lips ar-

SHE'S
NOT
REAL!


*Pause*
I'm sorry. i can't take this anymore.
Who are you again?
Actually, who is she?!
Don't you remember me?
Your best briend?
Or your boy friend?
Your parents?
Your school work?

You're slacking off.
Your dreaming off.
Your... dozingoff, and i can't wake you.

It's scaring me.

She is purging on paper.
Her red hair reminds me of the blood that comes up with  her breakfest.
Her legs are running away from what she is
Her lips ar-

She'n not real.

"Well your not real either"

Why do you care?

You don't even wanna be a real person.

Beautiful Women

Someone I used to know

You.
No not you.
The girl standing in your shadow.
The girl standing, swaying in your emotional tidal wave
being crashed to ground and drowned in her own tears,
shhaded by her own dfears,
and then hung by your eyelashes in the shade
of her torment.
You.
Yeah you....


I miss you.

Dera Anna...love, your not next victim

Dear Anna,

No.
No more.
I will not let you treat me this way anymore.
You think that I am some punching bag which you can use and abuse.
You think that I am some weakling that you can control.
Well I am not weak. I am not stupid either.
I know how your mind works. You want to manipulate me to lose weight, so I would be
'skinny' or ' popular'.
Well maybe I don't want to be skinny or popular.
I love being myself.
It took awhile to realize that, but I am glad to be healthy and alive.
You say that you are my 'best friend', but I have real friends that actually are friends.
They don't tell me that I am fat or that I am ugly.
Like you.
Well I am done with you. All of you.
You are just a figment of my imagination,
and I can get rid of you.
You may say no,
 but I say yes.
I'm not sorry,
but you are not my best friend anymore.

Goodbye Ana R. Xia

WRITTEN BY JESSICIA (JENNA) JUNQUA    AGE: 14

INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY!!!!!

International Women's Day 2012: Let's make a commitment to education

Women are still denied human rights, subject to violence and oppression, and make up less than one in five of the world's parliamentarians. Education can change all this

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International Women's Day offers a chance to make a commitment to educate girls such as these in a school in Kabul. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Women's rights have come a long way since the first International Women's Day in 1900. Early campaigners would be proud of the transformative role they played in securing votes for women, opening up access to male-only professions, and criminalising domestic violence and rape in the UK. The world is unquestionably better for many women than it was 100 years ago, thanks in no small part to the early pioneers.

But we cannot be complacent. There is still a long way to go. There is not yet worldwide recognition that women's rights are human rights. This year we have witnessed again how women are subjected to violence and oppression, and denied the most basic of rights around the world.

The horrific events unfolding in Syria remind us that we must stand in solidarity with women caught up in the horror of the conflict. Not only are brave women like Marie Colvin losing their lives to shine a light on the unfolding conflict, but Syrian women are at the frontline of a conflict that is tearing the country apart.

And out of the headlines, rape and sexual violence continue to scar women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – one in 10 of whom have been raped, many more than once. Around the world, women are paying the price of war; they work tirelessly for peace, yet they are often not invited to the negotiating table during the peace process.

In the Middle East women's rights are still neglected, despite momentous changes that have taken place through the Arab spring. We mustn't forget that in Saudi Arabia women are not permitted to drive, and if they are unmarried they must remain under male guardianship, effectively diminishing their status to that of a child. Even in post-revolution Egypt there are only nine women MPs – less than 1%, down from 12% under President Mubarak.

In fact, less than 20% of the world's parliamentarians are women. Less than 10% of countries have a female head of state, and less than 3% of signatories to peace agreements are women. Every minute, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth and another 20-30 women suffer serious injury or disability. Women face a barrage of difficulties, just because of their sex.

Education can play a pivotal role in empowering women to fight this glaring injustice. Study after study has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty and social prejudice. Yet girls' education is still not valued as highly as boys', despite evidence of the huge benefits it brings to individuals and to communities.

Indeed, women's education has what the head of the UN Development Programme calls a "multiplier effect". Educating women improves their rights in all areas, including property and work. Financial independence, born out of better education, brings prosperity to local communities. Education improves health – girls with post-primary education are five times more likely to be knowledgeable about HIV and Aids. Figures consistently show that mothers who have been educated are more likely to give birth in health facilities.

Despite all these benefits, 30 million more girls than boys are out of school. The UK government uses aid to promote low-fee providers, but evidence shows that very low income families often have to choose whose fees to pay, and boys regularly squeeze girls out. Removing school fees altogether and providing financial incentives for girls to attend schools is what works – as Brazil has shown through its Bolsa Familia scheme – and that should be prioritised instead.

And while the Department for International Development's focus on getting girls into school is commendable, its Girls Education Challenge Fund must complement and support the domestic government's own plans, not operate as a separate and parallel fund. DfID should always seek to help developing countries build their own universal school systems.

Education is a basic human right, and denying it to women and girls is unacceptable. Empowering women and achieving gender equality is a difficult and slow process that entails shifting attitudes, traditions and practices. We must commit to a long-term plan.

The first 100 years of International Women's Day brought us so much, but as the UK government's spending cuts impact so negatively on women that leading equality charities have declared them illegal, we know how far we still have to go.

• Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead is honorary co-president of the Labour Campaign for International Development.
• Jo Cox is chair of Labour Women's Network

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/08/international-womens-day-2012-commitment-education

Her Best Friend the Bathroom

Mash

Potatoes.

I think that's where it had to end.

Excusing herself all too politely to visit her personal shrine to a personal god of worship.

Sexual favors,

on her knees.

The gods are pleased with the memories

all down the drain...

and the only discreet hint of her purging urges is the white water that washes away

everything that is supposed to be sin.

But it's truth that it's washing away. So maybe waters the enemy...

Or maybe its her.

Sitting back down,

wiping her mouth

"lip stick" smear she says.

Lipstick smear my ass,

I know its a tear.

It's ok to cry,

when the water running down your cheek is washing away

the blush that covers up your

not so dirty little secret.

everything is kept clean,

except her thoughts

left behind the couch in the carvings that says

"Maybe next time I’ll stop"

but she doesn't.

Because underneath the tear in the wall,

is the scratched away paint that says

"I pinky swore I’d never leave

And what's a best friend if they break pinky promises?"

I'll tell you what.

a dictator.

That's what he really is.

On her knees,

doing those sexual, preditorial ,

desired by her favors.

He smiles when she finishes.

"You look thinner already".

She smiles, not for long,

to be forced down again.

Because when you start it's a drug both ways.

You can't stop and he can't stop you,

And I can't stop you and your pinky promises.

Besides the fact that you pinky promised me that you would stop.

Mash

Potatoes.

I made them just for you.

So sit down,

and eat.

Or talk to me..

Either way.

You pinky promised.

One Rule: OBEY

Pretty People Plays

Hello Pretty People!

It's seems we have come to the end of February, The month that The Pretty Project had dedicated to bringing awareness to rape and women abuse. Here, we shall continue to write about our daily message, however I cannot stress how much importance bringing awareness and ending rape and abuse is to The Pretty Project.

The Pretty Project has been working with its sintering project, The Binge Love Purge Hate Campaign, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001792067975#!/TheBingeLovePurgeHateCampaign ,

on a project that will hopefully start the pretty project off as an inspirational and working company dedicated to art and raising a voice in a silent world.

This project at the moment is currently in Hiatus until further notice. However we can detail that it will consist of at least two original written plays, a short film and many PSA's about

Rape

Abuse

Eating Disorders

And how you can get help.

The only way to get out of the dark is to turn on the light. Reach for the hand held out if it is trying to save you. Don't be afraid to speak up!

Hopefully the project will be successful as to take it into Manhattan for a week or maybe more so... and with the profit from this project, we have located two shelters for abused and raped women in Syria and Afghanistan that would take our donations.

Please support the project, The Pretty Project and its sistering Campaign.

Pretty People are made out of Ugly Experiences.

We are Pretty People.

Someday.

Everyday.

Starting Today.

Founder Hayley Michelle, 15 years old, March 5 2012.

The Blood in the Rainbow

After everything was done I wasn't sure what to do with the last piece of paper in the whole wide world.

So I began to write this.

But I didn't know what I wanted to write
So I started writing about how I used up every last sheet of paper.

A blank canvas.
It's how everything starts.

And I wasn't sure what to put on that either...
So I tucked my knees so deep into my body
And went to the corner and painted everything I could get my hands on:
Red.
Red because it’s the first color of the rainbow. And what is left besides the rainbow when black and white takes everything?

Red walls
Red cups
Red dresses
Red faces
Red
Canvas.

And when I ran out of red, I began to etch in everything that wasn't destroyed in:
Cream.
Cream because it reminded me of the folds below my belly-button,
and how much I wanted to straighten out the crinkles in the skin but I couldn't because I’m just a girl who goes into the corner and tucks her knees in so tight to her body she begins to paint her world red and cream.

Cream ceiling.
Cream floor.
Cream lights.
Cream
Canvas edges.

And then, when I ran out of cream I began to outline my work in green,
Because it was the last hue in my eyes
before I started shedding blue tears and black mascara.
Green because it was the color of the grass next to the other side that was shriveled up like a vein.
Green because it was the last color the rainbow bleeds before Black and White took that from me too.
And I tasted the rainbows blood as it fell from the grey clouds.
And it melted on my lips as if it belonged there.

The truth? The truth is that I painted everything red because it was the first color to bleed from the rainbow, and I wanted to bleed rainbows that I drain mine onto every last paper in the world.
But my veins were too small to fit all the goodness of a rainbow in them.
But I kept trying.

So with the last piece of paper in the whole wide world,
I wanted to write this.
Not because I'm sorry for what I did.
Because I wrote this in my rainbow blood.