86 years ago the female who changed the world was born. Happy birthday Marilyn Monroe. You were born a legend, icon and star, and you still are that today, almost 50 years after your tragic death.

People often ask me why I love Marilyn Monroe so much, and they usually assume it’s because she was pretty, or an icon for classy women…but it’s so much deeper than that. Marilyn Monroe to me, is an icon for strength, and the representation of someone pushed past their limits and abilities.

She was born at ill fate. Her mother and grandmother were mentally sick- severely depressed and had schizophrenia, and she never knew who her father even was. She was passed from orphanage to orphanage, from foster family to her mother, to her mother’s friends, to family, and back to orphanages. Growing up she literally thought that she was invisible. She grew up with no love, affection, emotional well being or physical connection to ANYONE. She was married off at 16 just so she didn’t have to travel to yet another orphanage.

Long story cut short: Marilyn spent her life constantly being portrayed as something she wasn’t, she was underpaid, disrespected and judged for standing up for what was right. People viewed her as a sex symbol simply because she had the typical ‘blonde hair and incredible body’ appearance. No matter how she tried to change the way people saw her, she still remained that “dumb blonde sex symbol.”

She was very talented and intelligent. She starred in many major movies and probably thousands of magazine shoots and cover photos. She even created her own movie production company and was a wonderful singer, dancer, and performer. She went to university and if you hear her speak you actually realize how smart and witty she was. She was extremely kind; the type of person who you’d compliment on her sweater and the next day she’d mail it to your house.

She was SO strong, and despite her own mental illnesses experienced in her twenties and thirties she continued to put on a brave face and fight like hell for what she wanted. Whether her medication killed her, her own conscious, or another individual she remains to me the most inspirational woman to have ever walked this earth. Happy Birthday Marilyn, if only you know how much the world loves you.

I believe acceptance is the number 1 way to deal with any given situation. I think that too many people try to change or alter their circumstances and problems, rather than accepting them. If you are faced with a misfortune it is usually because God saw enough strength in you, and knew you would be able to deal with it and survive it. He never gives you more than you can handle. Once you begin to accept a break up, a death, the loss of a job, or any other situation you are facing as YOUR problem it becomes easier to live day to day. If you spend all your time dwelling, wondering how you got to your current place, and if you are constantly thinking of the “what ifs,” it’ll take a lot more time to get through your struggles.

Once we embrace our flaws and problems, accept them as our own, and learn to work with them, rather than against them, we start to grow as people and see things in a different light.

The best example I can think of is a break up. Whenever people break up usually one or both people try to mend the relationship, get back together, and they spend days and months pondering what they could have done or said to change the end. But realistically, it ended for a REASON. It didn’t end by mistake…it ended because something bad happened and either one or both of the people decided it would be BETTER to not be together any longer. Why would you try to fix and dwell over something that ended with the intent to live a better and happier life? ACCEPT that you were once good and happy, and that you gradually got to an unhappy state for one reason or another. Mourn the relationship and be sad, but eventually accept that this is what happened and begin to move on. May sound easier said than done, but it has been done by people before and it can be done by you.

Change happens when you stop trying to hard to GO BACK and fix things. You will never have the capability to change what was, but by acknowledging your problem and working on living with it and slowly changing it, you can change what WILL BE.