你已经足够好了　You Are Enough

It's the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without.

～Paddy Chayevsky

I started working for CBS when I was nineteen years old and in college, and then I went on to work for NBC. I also assistant-directed two independent features.By age twenty-two, I was employed by one of the largest commercial companies in the world, so the bulk of my work focused on advertising, working on production teams for hundreds of television commercials.I styled and designed ads for Vogue, Mirabella and Elle, and I worked for Lucasfilm in their commercial division.I was fortunate to experience such an amazing career at such a young age, working all over the country with some of the most creative people in the world.I had it all.

And then one day my life changed.

It was one of those days that you always remember. The sky was blue, and the sky is so rarely blue in Los Angeles.The ocean was sparkling like diamonds and the film set was perfect.

I was filming a diet cola commercial in Malibu.

Then, suddenly, a thought came through me like a lightning bolt.“This is an industry that uses anorexic models to sell diet cola to teenage girls.”

And I quit.

A twelve-year career.

Right then.

That night I went home and hit my knees. I did not want to be a part of the problem；I wanted to be a part of the solution.But I had no idea what the solution looked like.So I said a kind of prayer that went something like this-“Right now, with all my gifts and all my insecurities and all my strengths and all my weaknesses……right now-with my skills-what can I do on behalf of the world?”

My grandfather used to say，“Start with what you know, and more will be revealed.”

I knew the film, television and advertising industries and almost everything about them.

So I started going into junior high schools. I held up pictures of the models to show what they looked like at five o'clock in the morning, and then held up another picture showing what they looked like after three hours of professional make-up, thirty-five lighting technicians, and professional photographers who can make anyone look beautiful and sexy……not to mention the efforts of post-production, where they airbrush all of the wrinkles, pimples, stretch marks, scars, cold sores and every other imperfection right out of the picture.With digital technology, they can even stretch the models to make them appear taller and thinner.

When the first digital machines came out, I watched my friends learn what they could do. One editor said，“This machine is going to change the world.Anything that we see that we don't like, we can simply change it and make it perfect！”I doubt that he was thinking about the repercussions for our children when he made that statement.

Advertising is powerful. Television is powerful.It is everywhere, and our children are listening to it and watching it.We have to be very careful as adults, because when we talk about our bodies and our diets and all the ways that we are impacted by these ideas, our children are listening.Children as young as five put themselves on“diets”.So many children are upset about their bodies.

So I went into the schools and talked to the girls and said，“This is a multi-billion dollar industry that spends millions of dollars a year proving to you that there is something wrong with you so that they can sell you something to fix it. So I am here to tell you that your teeth are white enough……and your breath is fresh enough……and your thighs are thin enough.You are enough.We can no longer afford for the best and brightest among us to live in a state of constant insecurity.”

It was interesting because the teachers began asking me to speak at their teachers' conferences and the mothers started asking me to speak at their women's conferences. The next thing I knew, I was speaking around the country on any given day to eleven-and twelve-year-olds during the day and to thousands of women at national conferences at night.

It is thrilling to know that many people are out there now talking about these issues, but back then, in the mid-to late-nineties, no one was really talking about any of this. By the time little girls are ten and eleven years old they have been hit with so many media messages that they are already at the mercy of, and manipulated by, an industry that has gone insane.

While doing my speaking around the country, one day I got the idea“you are on the right track-but you need to start with the babies.”I wasn't sure what that meant but I knew it was an important piece of my work. So I took a thirty-three-day road trip in silence to think about it；just me, my car, and my camera.I traveled all through the western United States.At the end of the trip, I ended up spending four days by myself out in the Sedona desert.Sitting out there all alone after thirty-some days in silence, I kept thinking about that idea-“you are on the right track but you need to start with the babies.”I am forty-three years old and I spent my first twenty years safe from any idea of a super model floating around in my subconscious.

Today's little girls have never known anything else.

Soon after the trip, I was writing in my journal. It wasn't a particularly interesting entry-something like“yesterday I did blah blah blah，”and suddenly I began to write“Cassandra.Cassandra was strolling along.Cassandra was singing a sing-a-long song.”And I just kept writing and the entire book came out in one sentence.

Cassandra's Angel is about the stories that we are given from the people in our lives about who they think we are……and then dropping those stories so that we can become who we came here to be.

It is a book about a little girl, Cassandra, who goes through a series of events in which she is collecting all of these“stories”-or negative messages-from the people in her life. It is about how she lets go of the stories that other people have written for her, so that she can make her own story about who she came here to be.

After many rejection letters, I found a small publisher in Washington, and Cassandra's Angel won the Best Women's Book of the Year, Colorado Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the International Visionary Award. It experienced record sales with no national marketing-it was all by word of mouth, just like Chicken Soup for the Soul in its early days.The book continued to enjoy great success, and has led to a widely acclaimed CD as well.Now Cassandra's Angel may even turn into a Broadway musical.

I am often asked who Cassandra is. I didn't know anything about Cassandra when I wrote the book, but learned later that the original Cassandra was the Trojan princess from Greek mythology.Very beautiful, she received a lot of attention from Apollo, who fell madly in love with her and gave her the gift of prophecy.But Cassandra wanted nothing to do with Apollo.So he punished her, altering the gift by taking away her power of persuasion.So there's Cassandra.She knows everything that's going on.She knows the truth.She knows the future, but no one will believe her.

Although Cassandra in my book is vibrantly creative, magical and obviously inspired, the other characters in the story do not honor her gifts. Her journey leads her to a place of solitude where she realizes that her true power comes from within.The final illustration in the book presents a young woman whose powers of persuasion have been fully restored.Cassandra is all young women from all times-strong, vibrant, creative, and sensitive-living in the pursuit of their own truths.

I believe that we all have the truth deep inside us. But each one of us, in our own ways, must make that decision to figure out who it is that we want to be.I have been challenged to my core personally, professionally, and financially many times over since I started this project.I have been on the edge of losing everything more times than I care to admit.But something inside of me would not let me quit.I think we all go through that experience.Fears are going to come up.But it's making the choice to face the fear, to just go through it.I kept telling myself，“I am going to do this, no matter what.”There is a kind of profound power available when we commit to something bigger than ourselves.

～Gina Otto

人人都讨厌威胁，但却在所难免。

——帕迪·查耶夫斯基

我19岁大学还没有毕业，就开始在哥伦比亚广播公司打工，毕业后就直接进了美国国家广播电视公司上班。此外，我还协助导演了两部独立的故事片。22岁那年，我开始效力于全球最大的商业公司之一。公司的性质决定了我大部分工作主要集中在广告领域，参与广告团队的工作，制作了成千上万的电视广告。我为一些著名时尚杂志设计制作广告，诸如《时尚与美容》、《米兰贝拉》和《世界时装之苑》等。此外，我还在卢卡斯电影公司的商业广告部任过职。我年纪轻轻，就有幸拥有如此辉煌的职业经历，我在全国各地奔波，与才智过人的人一起工作。

然而，随着那天的到来，我的生活彻底改变。

那是个让人难忘的日子，天空很蓝。要知道，在洛杉矶很少看到蓝天。大海碧波荡漾，熠熠生光，就像钻石一样，用来拍摄取景简直太棒了。

那天我正在马里布海滩拍摄一部关于零度可乐的广告。

就在拍摄过程中，一个念头如晴天霹雳般闯进我的脑海：我现在从事的这个行业是在用厌食的模特做宣传，来向未成年的女孩推销健怡可乐。

我不干了。

放弃一个从事了12年的职业。

就在那一刻我作出了这个决定。

那天晚上回到家，我一个劲儿拍打膝盖。我不想助纣为虐，想方设法解决这个问题。但是，我那时还不清楚要采取什么样的办法。我做了一个祷告，内容大概是这样：现在，我要竭尽自己的所有天赋、不安以及自己的强项和弱点……就在现在，我施展平生所学能为世界做些什么呢？

我的祖父说过：“从自己知道的做起，做的过程中就越来越明确了。”

我对影视业和广告业了如指掌。

我开始走进初中院校。我带着那些模特在凌晨五点的照片，还有她们在经过三小时的专业化妆后拍的照片。经过一番打扮和35个灯光师和专业摄影师的努力，任何人都能变得性感迷人，更不用说后期制作技术会处理掉所有的皱纹、粉刺、拉伸纹、伤疤、疹子等瑕疵。在电子技术的辅助下，他们甚至可以把模特的影像拉长，让她们看起来更苗条、更纤长。

第一代数码设备问世的时候，我看见朋友学习怎样使用。一个编辑曾经感慨道：“数码设备将会改变世界。我们可以用它来美化任何不满意的照片！”我觉得这位编辑在作出以上评论的时候，肯定没有想到数码相机将会给我们的孩子带来什么样的影响。

广告营销和电视机的作用不可小视。它们无处不在，我们的孩子就暴露在电视广告之中。作为家长，我们更需要谨慎小心。电视广告宣传的理念影响了我们，当我们在谈论自己的身体和饮食的时候，孩子都在听着呢。甚至五岁的孩子都想“节食”，很多孩子对自己的身材很不满意。

鉴于此，我走进学校，对那些女孩子说：“电视广告这个产业价值数十亿美元。每一年，这个行业都投入大量的资金来说服我们，让我们相信自己的身体有这样或那样的不足。然后，他们就会向我们推销产品。我来这里是想跟大家说，你们的牙齿现在够白净，呼吸的空气够清新，大腿够瘦。你们什么都不缺。我们中的一些最优秀、最聪明的人一直因为广告上的宣传而沉湎于一种不安之中，我们再也不能如此。”

有意思的是，学校的老师开始邀请我到教师会议上发言，有孩子的妇女开始邀请我到妇女会议上发言。紧接着，我就开始连轴转——白天给十一二岁的孩子讲话，晚上在全国会议上给成千上万的妇女讲话。

现在人们到处都在谈论这个问题，真是振奋人心。但是，回顾20世纪90年代后半期，那时候几乎没有人谈论这个问题。眼下，十来岁的小姑娘被铺天盖地的广告所包围，她们已经落入广告的魔爪。广告业的发展已经完全丧失理智，进入了一种疯狂的状态。

就在我环游全国进行讲演的时候，有一天突发奇想：“你现在做的事情是对的，但是你的宣传需要从娃娃抓起。”我当时并不知道这到底意味着什么，只知道是我工作中的重要部分。我开车转悠了33天，静静思考这个问题。这段旅程上只有我、车子和相机。我开车周游了整个美国西部。行程结束的时候，我在塞多纳沙漠里待了四天。经历了30来天的沉默不语，我坐在沙漠里反复思忖这个想法：“你现在做的事情是对的，但是你的宣传需要从娃娃抓起。”我今年43岁，在20岁之前，我在潜意识中都没有受到有关超级名模的任何影响。

而现在的小女孩身边到处都是铺天盖地的模特广告。

那次行程结束后不久，我就开始写日志。写的事情并没有什么意思，就是记记流水账。直到有一天，我开始记述卡珊德拉的故事：“卡珊德拉在散步，卡珊德拉在唱一首好长好长的歌。”我就这样写呀写呀，一字一句写成了一本书。

《卡珊德拉的天使》这部书讲的是周围的人如何编造各种“故事”告诉我们应该怎么做，我们应该如何应对这种谎言，找到真正的自我。

这本书的主人公是一个名叫卡珊德拉的小女孩。在书中，小女孩经历了一系列事情，不断从身边的人那里收集这些“故事”或者“负面信息”。书中讲述了小女孩如何丢掉这些别人给她编造的“故事”，然后坚持自我的事迹。

经历了出版社多次退稿之后，华盛顿一家不知名的小出版社决定出版我的书。《卡珊德拉的天使》一书荣获了“年度最佳妇女作品”、“科罗拉多州年度图书”等奖项。此外，该书还入围“最有洞察力国际图书奖”提名。和《心灵鸡汤》在问世之初一样，该书没有进行全国范围的营销，全靠读者口口相传就取得了傲人的销售量。现在该书的销售前景依然看好，而且由本书衍生了一张颇受好评的唱片。该书还有可能会改编成音乐剧，被搬上百老汇大舞台。

我常常扪心自问，卡珊德拉到底是谁？写这本书的时候，我对卡珊德拉一无所知。后来知道，原来卡珊德拉是希腊神话里面的一位特洛伊公主。太阳神阿波罗对美若天仙的卡珊德拉一见倾心，迷恋有加，所以赋予她未卜先知的能力。但是，卡珊德拉却不想和阿波罗在一起。由爱生恨的阿波罗剥夺了卡珊德拉的说服能力。这下可苦了卡珊德拉，她对事情发展了如指掌，知道事实真相，可以未卜先知，但是没有人相信她。

在我的书里，卡珊德拉聪明伶俐、活泼迷人，而且富有灵感，然而其他角色却无视她的天资。她来到一个孤寂的地方。在这个地方，卡珊德拉意识到自己的内在力量。书中最后的描写向读者展示了一个极具说服力的年轻女士。卡珊德拉和所有时期的年轻女士一样，具有以下品质：勇敢坚强、活力四射、聪明伶俐、通情达理，而且不断追求事实真相。

我相信，真相就在我们每个人的内心深处。我们每一个人都应该自主决定到底想成为什么样的人。自开始这个项目以来，我不止一次地受到来自各个方面的挑战，包括个性、职业和经济等。我很多次差点就一无所有，但是内心深处的力量让我继续坚持。我想每个人都会经历这个过程。恐惧在所难免，我们要做的就是勇于面对和克服它。我不断地提醒自己：无论如何，我要坚持下去。当我们尽心投身于比自身价值更大的事业时，做起事情来就有了无穷的力量。

——吉娜·奥托