 To Everyway Woman, I have our color specialist and high end fashion specialist, Janice Marshall with us. And we're just going to talk about Janice Marshall. So Janice, tell us why you got into the fashion industry in the first place. Well I'm a military brat so I've lived all over the world and I was able to get a lot of influence from other places and I think that's important to combine to become a stylist and to get into fashion and when I moved back to the States, I saw that Europe was so far ahead and I really wanted to bring the forward thinking into an American way of dressing. Now did you go into fashion as wanting to be a model? Did you go in wanting to be a designer? What was it that brought you in? I went into the fashion industry because I did want to be a model but unfortunately I'm only five foot four and not five foot eight so that ended that career. And then I wanted to become the next Donna Karen so I went to Virginia Tech and became a fashion designer and just went to Los Angeles instead of New York. So being someone who's really enthusiastic about fashion, what do you see about fashion that can really help or hinder women and their image when it comes to fashion? If you're wearing the wrong color or the wrong fit, I really think that kind of hinders your confidence but when you have the right fit and the right color you can walk out there in the world and just feel confident in anything that you do. Was there anything while you were in fashion that was a big lesson for you or something that really touched you? I think it was because growing up I wasn't a confident girl. I just kind of let people beat on me and I just believed everything that people said but when I found out that clothes could make me feel confident and make me portray a certain way to people, that was the biggest lesson. How do you feel about fashion and the impact that it has on young developing girls? Well, I hate to say this because I think some of the fashions that we have now for young girls are a little too provocative and I wish that they could learn how to dress more for themselves and cover things up that should be covered up and not give the message that is giving across to what they wear. What message is that? I think girls should remain girls for as long as they can and what I mean by that is you don't need a boy, you don't need this person or that person and just remain the girl so that you can have your own confidence and go out there. If fashion does impact young girls sometimes in a very positive way and I know you're trying to move it into a very positive way but sometimes it can impact girls in a very negative way and one of the things that we see coming out through fashion is this unrealistic idea of being thin. Yes. How did that impact you? Growing up I was not chunky I wouldn't say but I had compared myself to other girls that were very thin and then that created in me an eating disorder which I struggled with for 15 years and I would really hope that the young girls nowadays would not want to be that thin. It's unhealthy and the physical things that you go through is just horrendous. What were some of the physical things that you went through? My teeth are rotten. I hate to say that. I'm not rotten. I've taken good care of them but I've had to spend thousands of dollars. Just now my knees hurt. There are certain things that hurt. Your hair falls out. It took years to grow it back. Was there a moment when you realized that I have a problem or did someone have to hit you over the head with it? I knew I had a problem but I didn't want to admit to it. I wanted to rehab when I was very young, when I was early 20s, sign myself out because I didn't believe that I had a problem and then when I turned 30 and still was dealing with it I knew that I had a huge problem I had to take care of it. I remember you had mentioned once that there was a moment and it was when you were on a table. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about that moment? I was on a table with another Ed. We call eating disorders Ed friend. She just grabbed my hand and said whatever you do, don't be doing this when you're 30. I couldn't do that for eight years from now. I'll be over it. But this thing just really destroys you. It destroys your heart. It destroys your life. That was the moment when I turned 30 that I remembered back to that I had to change. Sometimes I know eating disorders really do kind of carry, cover a huge umbrella of different types of eating disorders. Some of them are binge eating. You go to the refrigerator at night and just eat compulsively. Sometimes it's about not eating enough. Do you mind talking a little bit about the type of eating disorder that you befriended? Yes. It started out as just over exercising and I would exercise basically five hours a day. And then somebody told me in college, I hate to say this, that there's an easier way. And that's how I learned about bulimia, which is throwing up. It's overeating and then getting rid of it. And then finally that became too difficult so I just stopped eating. Basically my diet was coffee and cigarettes for years. So what was your focus on, sometimes I say bulimia is associated with being able to fill yourself emotionally and you'll do that with food. And then anorexia can be attached to just about being thin. Yes, there is a misperception with that. Anorexia starts at wanting to be thinner, but there's kind of like a point where some people go, oh, this is too hard. I'm going to go back to living a normal lifestyle. And then there's that line where you just go over and it's just about being in control because your life is so out of control or you were raised in not a control. I mean, you weren't raised in a family or an experience that was good. So you just internalize and it's all about control. Because you have a very picture perfect type of family, right? You see the pictures on the wall and you would never know that there's this huge river underneath all of that behind that picture. Do you have any words of encouragement for it? Because right now on the web, you'll see things like on YouTube, there are young girls who are posting videos of themselves that they want to be thin. And they send these pictures out about if their hip bones, how far out their hip bones stick out. It says how great they look. So if they stick out a lot, they look great. So I mean, we would associate that with they have a disorder. Yes. What would you say to someone who just posted a YouTube video of themselves with their hip bones sticking out an inch and a half past the flat of their belly, putting up, look how sexy I am. What would you say to that person? What I would say to that person is it's all about who they are inside. And it's not about what they look like on the outside and to continue working on what they are on the inside because that's what's so important. And being thin is going to do nothing but destruct their lives. And it's not worth it. I have one more question. At what age do you think you approached that? When I think back, I really think it started when I was in about third grade. Okay, so I'm going to ask you another question. What would you say to Janice in third grade? What would you say to that girl? I would tell her not to worry. And that everything was going to be okay. And that you don't have to control anything and just enjoy your life. Thank you. Thank you for those beautiful words. And we will see more of Janice Marshall in the future being our color specialist and fashion expertise. Thank you.