Who will walk the runway during New York Fashion Week and win $20,000? You decide.
Mel Trammel
About Mel Trammel
I am 58 years old, a mother, a nurse and children’s book author. curvaceous with natural short hair. I love fashion and I feel confident and sexy when I look beautiful. It took years to feel comfortable in my own skin. I've arrived and I'm powerful!
Learn More About Mel Trammel
What makes you the Next Runway Star?
What makes me the Next Runway Star is my maturity, confidence and sexiness. I feel good in my own skin and I know how to put on a show. Beauty starts from within. I spent many adult years just trying to be accepted. I was a chameleon and honestly felt inauthentic. In my fifties I drew a line. I decided to start living my life by first loving myself, my body, my creativity unapologetically. I started writing and trusting that my message is encouraging and powerful. As an author, I encourage children to own their unique talents, ask for help, continue learning, and contribute as a team player. If children can learn this, how much better will their adult lives be? This is the message I would send down the runway: I am enough, I am love, and I am beautiful.
What would this once in a lifetime experience mean to you and why?
Walking the runway is something I have always wanted to do. It's a fabulous opportunity to express my beauty and self confidence. I also believe this is a great networking opportunity. I am not widely known as an author and New York Fashion week would place me in a room with game changers. My books deliver powerful messages that would translate beautifully to the screen. A brand new tugboat trying to make her way in a busy city harbor; or a baby manatee feeling replaced when he becomes a big brother; or the courtship of a sandhill crane couple who find each other when their shrinking marshlands become crowded and dangerous. What an incredible platform to be seen and discovered.
What are you most proud of about yourself or what have you overcome and why?
I love this question. I am first most proud of self acceptance. I have worked very hard most of my life for others: as a daughter, wife, mother, nurse. Being selfless nearly destroyed me. I learned after years of depleting myself for others, that if I don't place the oxygen on myself first, I will eventually run out of air and the world will still go on. Self care has transformed my life and makes me a better partner, mother, nurse, and human as I serve from abundance. I have also overcome labels I accepted as facts from childhood. Being placed in a lower reading group in the third grade, I believed most of my life that I wasn't smart or capable, even with evidence of the contrary. Becoming a published author, trusting that the story I share is pertinent and powerful, has been transformative in my self belief and confidence. I believe every human has this ability to effect change and rarely taps into it.
What would you do with the $20,000 cash prize?
If I won the $20,000 cash prize I would invest into turning my book "In the Mangroves" into a feature film. This captivating story would help so many children and parents honor the feelings of a child, recognize parents make mistakes too, and learn that love makes room for everyone.
Content from Mel Trammel
Rise is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit that helps sexual assault survivors across the country and around the world. They’ve created the most successful legislative reform movement in U.S. history: 120 laws passed, 1 UN Resolution and 112 million people’s lives impacted by their efforts.
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