~ Kathleen: September ~

Kathleen is, as they say, old enough to know better but young enough to do it anyway. Currently employed as a Human Resources manager for a small company, she spends her increasingly scarce free time singing, voice-acting, kayaking, and exploring a perhaps-unhealthy fixation with vintage bicycles.

She has taken a circuitous route to get where she is today. Growing up, Kathleen was entirely certain that she wanted to be a theatrical stage manager, even going so far as to get her undergraduate degree in theatre studies, and MFA in stage management. Upon receiving these degrees, she was entirely certain that she never wanted to see the back of a stage again!

This, unfortunately, meant that she had very little life-direction for the next several years. Time was spent and money was (sometimes) made in a vast array of activities, including doing filings for the SEC, DJing at swing dance clubs, starting a costuming business, reviewing drug-safety reports, performing at Renaissance faires, temping, recording with a folk band, and eventually landing in a career of HR, while still performing on the side. Getting involved in the Lime Project seemed like a perfect opportunity for not only helping out a friend, but advocating positive body images for women. It seems that women today are pummeled with images, anecdotes, and direct commentary, which tell us that they are not living up to expectations. They are supposed to be sexual, but not overt. Attractive, but unaware of it. If they are intelligent, they are not supposed to be beautiful, and vice versa.

Kathleen has dealt with the same messages, and has at last reached the conclusion that perhaps *not* looking like a super model is, in fact, the better option. Therefore, her participation in this calendar is not simply an altruistic effort to fight cancer, but also the current stage in a personal journey.

Although, you know, she really hopes the cancer-fighting part works out.

Contact Kathleen: kathleen@limeproject.org.