It all started when I noticed a facebook status update -

"Doppelganger week! During this week change your profile picture to someone famous(actor, musician, athlete) you have been told you look like...and repost this".

At first I wasn't going to participate in the latest facebook game... but having been told on numerous occasions, from a very young age that I look like Julia Roberts...

... I did a good image search and posted "pretty woman" as my profile picture. Apparently my own mom was tricked and thought it was just a new profile picture -- of me.




While I don't actually think I look like Ms Roberts, I'll admit that I can see where people are coming from. I have a big toothy grin. Brown eyes of a similar shape. A pointy-ish nose. But I've gotta say - She looks way better at 30 something (in the picture above) than I do at 20 something (in the picture below). And I'll bet it isn't just that she has a better make-up artist than I do. Sigh. Whatever. I'll take the compliment and run with it!



So - after posting my new profile picture - and now with "Julia" on the brain - I started clicking around the Internet. I read a story about her encouraging woman to "take off their tops" for Valentine's Day (I'm certain some husbands will be thanking her for that one!) and declining the opportunity to do a take 2 of "Pretty Woman" because "no one needs to see an old hooker" (Well said Roberts! Well said!). I eventually wound up on Youtube... curious whether I would find any of her older movies.

My Best Friends Wedding... nope.


Pretty Woman... yup. All of it. And in pretty decent quality too.


A little more than half way through the movie, grinning and smiling at the charming hooker and the sweet chemistry developing between Viviane and Edward - I started to think and wonder.

Not usually a good thing - Andrea - thinking AND wondering!

"I wonder if anyone actually became a prostitute after seeing this movie...?"

"...in hopes that their super rich and handsome prince charming would magically appear...?"

"...in hopes that someone would look at them and see all the POTENTIAL...?"

"...this movie isn't really about a hooker and a rich guy... it's about any girl... it's about any guy..."

Pretty woman is a movie about possibilities. It's also about obstacles. It sheds some light on how judgemental and self-righteous people can pull others down. It's a movie about seeing past social norms and outer appearances to the very real and vulnerable person under the layers of status, occupation, brand names and everything else we use to "judge".

And I'm not just thinking about how people judge those who've somehow ended up on Hollywood Boulevard to make a living. I'm also talking about the assumptions that we make about the people who seem to have it "made" - like Edward.

In my experience - people have often been under the impression that I have it all together. That I'm a strong and confident person. That I'm never a "mess" on the inside. In my experience it's pretty rare that I have felt like the person people think I am.

So the lesson(s) I walk away from my latest viewing of Pretty Woman is not a new one... but it's one that keeps coming back. People aren't always what they seem. Not as strong, not as weak, not as smart and/or stupid.

And...

You'll only ever get as close to someone as they will let you get. Only I know what I'm thinking inside my head. Only I can decide what I choose to share and how I choose to share it.

And finally...

Don't judge a book by it's cover.

A.