Outfit of the Week: Party Like a Rockstar on New Year's Eve!!

Here are a few looks to ring in the new year! Hit your New Year's Eve parties with one of these!
Dare to be Different by Sweet As Candee

Soft and Sweet by Sweet As Candee

On The Edge by Sweet As Candee

Victoria by Sweet As Candee

Peace and Love Man by Sweet As Candee

New Study: Black girls are getting shorter!

In an age when the adult populations of most industrialized nations have grown significantly taller, the average height of black women in the United States has been receding, beginning with those born in the late 1960s. The difference in stature between white women and black women has now stretched to three-quarters of an inch and appears to be increasing, according to newly released data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The main culprit appears to be diet.

The average height of a black woman born in the 1980s is just under 5 feet 4 inches; her mother, born in the 1960s, is more than half an inch taller. Even her grandmother, born in the 1940s, is a bit taller. The average white woman born in the 1980s is about half an inch taller than her mother.

“The only reasonable explanation we can come up with is diet and the obesity epidemic among (middle- and low-income) black women.”

Over the last three decades, the prevalence of obesity among white Americans has tripled, while among blacks it has increased fivefold. Almost 80 percent of black females are overweight or obese, compared with 62 percent of the total female population, according to the CDC.

New Show: Daddy's Girls

MTV Shows

Best known as Rev. Run's daughters and big sisters to JoJo, Diggy, Russy and baby Miley, Vanessa and Angela Simmons have literally grown up on MTV. Across five seasons of Run's House, we've watched these young women begin to make their own place in the world, but always under the watchful eye and with the guiding hand of their father. After all, they are Daddy's Girls.

But now it's time for them to stretch their wings and take on life on their own terms. Daddy's Girls follows Vanessa and Angela as they officially leave the comforts of the family home in New Jersey to run their own business and live full-time in Los Angeles. Will they be able to keep in mind the invaluable moral lessons their father has instilled in them as they navigate the fast lane?

Vanessa and Angela won't be alone as they establish a home together in Los Angeles and set up West Coast operations for their Pastry shoe line. Daddy's Girls will also feature their cousin Jessica and their friend Alycia. A trusted friend, Jessica is a responsible individual whose role will be to keep Vanessa and Angela grounded in spite of their hip-hop royalty lifestyle. Alycia, meanwhile, is an eccentric and beautiful aspiring singer who lives on a meager budget, yet is always striving to keep up with the Simmons sisters.

In Los Angeles, they'll strive to make Pastry a success that's worthy of the Simmons family name. At the same time, they'll grow their friendships with Jessica and Aliceia while dating and following their dreams and desires, and making life decisions on their own.

New Movie: Madea Goes to Jail Trailer

Directed, written, and starring Perry himself as Madea, the film also features Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, David Mann, Tamala Mann, Ronreaco Lee, Ion Overman, Vanessa Ferlito, Viola Davis, Sophia Vergara, Robin Coleman, and Bobbi Baker.

At long last, Madea returns to the big screen in "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail." This time America's favorite irreverent, pistol-packin' grandmomma is raising hell behind bars and lobbying for her freedom...Hallelujer!

OMG! Teen survives four months without a heart!

A South Carolina teenager said she felt like a "fake person" living for 118 days without a heart beating in her chest in-between heart transplants.

D'Zhana Simmons, 14, was recently released from a Miami hospital after being kept alive on a custom-built artificial blood-pumping device.

"It was like I was a fake person, like I didn't really exist. I was just here," she said, referring to the time without a heart.

D'Zhana had dilated cardiomyopathy, which caused her original heart to become enlarged and too weak to pump blood sufficiently. When her first transplanted heart also did not work properly in July, surgeons replaced it with two heart pumps until she recovered her strength.

Normally when an artificial heart is used as a bridge, the patient's own heart is left in the body, doctors said.

"This, we believe, is the first pediatric patient who has received such a device in this configuration without the heart, and possibly one of the youngest that has … been bridged to transplantation without her native heart," said Dr. Marco Ricci, the hospital's director of pediatric cardiac surgery.

It was a "big deal" for a child to be left without a heart for so long, said Dr. Peter Wearden, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl's body? That is pretty amazing," said Wearden, who works with the kind of pumps used on the teen.

Her prognosis is good, Ricci said, but there is 50 per cent chance that she will need another heart transplant before she turns 30. For now, D'Zhana said she is glad she can now walk without the machine. She is looking forward to celebrating her 15th birthday on Saturday riding a boat off Miami's coast, and is grateful she will be able to see her five siblings and friends again soon at her home in Clinton, S.C.

D'Zhana, You are definitely in our hearts and prayers!!!!

MEMO: Saggy Pants are not cute!

Tell your man to put on a belt!!!

Morehouse College recently began to take on saggy pants, cursing looking to promote ‘Renaissance man’

“Obama Won; Now Pull Up Your Pants” was the headline on a post-election column by Justin M. LaGrande, lifestyle editor of The Gramblinite, the newspaper of the historically black Grambling State University in Louisiana. “Obama isn’t sagging his pants,” LaGrande wrote.

Obama himself said in an MTV interview shortly before the election that he opposes laws and ordinances — such as one proposed by an Atlanta city councilman last year — that would control dress.

I personally agree with it....it's about time boys (as well as some men--scary!) take their appearance seriously! I think it's ridiculous how unaware they are of how appearance affects their life. In addition, if we as young ladies stop thinking it's so cute, maybe boys will stop walking down the street falling over their pants! It is sooooo note cute! Get some swagger and stop looking like a goon! Think more Kanye and Common...less Plies (yuk!)...think about it!

Told ya!

A recent study details the power of negative racial stereotypes. In a long-term survey of 12,686 people, changes in social circumstances such as falling below the poverty line or being sent to jail made people more likely to be perceived by interviewers as black and less likely to be seen as white. Altogether, the perceived race of 20% of the people in the study changed at least once over a 19-year period, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the rest of the study here.

Is Michelle Obama the best black female role model since Claire Huxtable?

Michelle Obama: What's not to love? She's smart, accomplished, funny, a great mother and a snazzy dresser. But as Newsweek's Allison Samuels points out, compared to other black women in the media, there's something different about Michelle Obama. For instance: Why don't we see Michelle snappin' her neck and waggin' her finger when she's "keepin' it real"? Why don't we see Michelle shake her booty and drop it like it's hot when she dances? Why haven't we heard any sassy one-liners or seen any displays of an easily-provoked temper?

Also, why haven't we seen Michelle raise her voice above an "appropriate" decibel level? Michelle Obama doesn't seem to be anything like the image of black women that we see on TV and in films. Who is the real Michelle Obama? Get ready for it:

Michelle Obama is totally normal. A normal, well-educated wife of a politician and mother of two.

Like the fictional Huxtables before them, the Obamas serve as an example to both blacks and non-blacks through their upper-middle-class regular-ness.

And even though Michelle will probably never gain acceptance from some of her critics, Samuels still sees her life in the spotlight as a way for Americans to see a "regular African-American woman" in action, showing "what we think and what we face on a regular basis."

Chloe Mortaud crowned first Miss Black France

The new Miss France says she wants to advertise French ethnic diversity on the world stage.

Chloe Mortaud says her mother is a Mississippi-born African-American and her father’s heritage is ethnic French “as far back as we could trace the family tree.”

She told The Associated Press on Sunday that she wants to “incarnate … today’s French diversity” at international beauty pageants. She says she wants to explain to people that “fear of the other is unfounded.”

She says she and her brother were the only children of mixed ethnic background in a village where they grew up in the French Pyrenees.

Mortaud, a 19-year-old student in international business in Toulouse, won the Miss France pageant Saturday night.

Trina loves the kids!

Trina announced yesterday the re-introduction of her Diamond Doll Foundation which was previously established in 2006. Trina created the organization as a method to speak to young women across the country about relevant issues they face in the community such as teen pregnancy, runaways and self-esteem. Thru the Diamond Doll Foundation, Trina will participate in the 1st Annual “Jingle Bell Toy Drive” to benefit the children of Jackson Hospital in Miami on December 14th.

Trina will be on hand to collect toys while posing for photos and giving autographs at The Chop Shop, a popular barbershop within the Miami community. There will be free haircuts given as well as surprise appearances from special invited guests. All attendees must bring a new, unwrapped toy to participate in the festivities. The following week, Trina will present the toys collected at the drive to the children of Jackson Hospital to help boost their spirits.

“It’s important for entertainers to utilize our influence to get involved and build awareness for community programs such as the Jingle Bell Toy Drive ,” said Trina. “I am putting a renewed focus and energy into the Diamond Doll Foundation this coming year as we look to help the less fortunate and provide motivation for young people to improve their lives.”

As part of Trina’s commitment to building the impact of the Diamond Doll Foundation, Trina aims to make appearances during her tour stops to speak with young women about important issues that affect the urban community such as teen pregnancy, runaways, relationships and overall self-esteem/empowerment.