Category: Beauty & Brains

History-making Spelling Bee

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

14-year-old girl makes spelling bee history .

The winner of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee captured the illustrious title with the word murraya, a genus of tropical trees.
“M-U-R-R-A-Y-A”    “That is correct!”
The competition on ESPN as 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde from New Orleans, Louisiana becomes the first African-American champion. Covid forced the cancellation of last year’s spelling bee but this year’s 11 finalists got to compete in person and Zaila got to celebrate her victory on stage for the world to see. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Zaila Avant-garde is only the second Black student to win the spelling bee. The first was Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Zaila is a champion in other ways.  She owns three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple basketballs at the same time. 

Smashing Really High Ceilings

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

A black woman – who made US Navy history this month – gets her wings tomorrow.

Lt. JG Maddy Swegle

Lt. JG Maddy Swegle shatters a really high ceiling. She is the US Navy’s first Black female fighter pilot. “I am really honored that I get to wear the wings and get to fly planes and call myself a pilot.” Swegle talking about her achievement in a Navy video. The Navy will pin wings of gold on her tomorrow (July 31) at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas where she’s assigned. The Virginia native says she hopes her accomplishment will inspire other minority women to follow.
Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

The first woman to fly a Navy tactical fighter jet was Rosemary Mariner in 1973.

Opinion: Any Tan Is Skin Damage

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

Being smart about the sun.

ANY TAN IS SKIN DAMAGE

Summer is gone, but don’t let that stop you from protecting your skin.

Dermatologist Dr. Lawrence E. Gibson says all tanning increases your chance of cancer. He wrote on MayoClinic.com, “… any change in skin color is a sign of damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Repeated exposure to UV radiation — whether from the sun or a tanning bed — increases your risk of premature skin aging and skin cancer.” Continue reading “Opinion: Any Tan Is Skin Damage” →

Opinion: Not Ambitious About a Tan

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

You won’t find this blonde worshiping the sun. With so much evidence about how damaging too much sun can be, I’ve adopted a Scarlett O’Hara attitude of protecting my skin.

O’HARA AND CHANEL

Tanning is a relatively new phenomena. In the civil war epic, Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara prized her magnolia-white skin and carefully guarded it against the hot Georgia sun. Having a tan was a sign you labored for a living.

Continue reading “Opinion: Not Ambitious About a Tan” →

Opinion: Young and Immortals Still Sunbathing

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

Amazingly many people still worship the sun.

Bathing Beauty Today

With mounting scientific evidence that tanning can cause cancer or at the very least make you look like a lizard one day, it seems more people would cover up. So, why does it seem everyone is so ambitious to get a tan? Continue reading “Opinion: Young and Immortals Still Sunbathing” →