Inktober/Blogtober: Day 8

Here we are, over a week into daily blogging and I haven't quite felt the need to throw my laptop at a wall, yet.  Result?!  

Inktober's 8th prompt word was "star" and my brain immediately leapt to "celebrities."  Clearly, we live in a post Hello magazine world...

The thing is, when I think of an actual star, I don't think of Kim Kardashian or anyone of that ilk.  I think of the ultimate Hollywood icons: Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and of course, my absolute heroine, Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey's face is still recognised the world over, thanks to her enduring status as a Hollywood icon, even 25 years after her death.  She was known as an outstanding beauty, a fashionista, a talented dancer and a muse (Hubert De Givenchy was a close personal friend and even created L'Inderdit, his first ever fragrance - which has recently been relaunched - for Audrey).  She is also remembered, of course, as an excellent actress.  It's hard to imagine anyone else delicately nibbling a pastry whilst wearing oversized sunglasses, or sobbing in the rain over a missing cat in Breakfast At Tiffany's.  Holly Golightly is still the role most associated with Audrey Hepburn and not without reason.  However, her other parts also show off her acting skills, from her youthful, Oscar-winning performance in Roman Holiday, to her more experienced appearance in the film Audrey herself often cited as her favourite, The Nun's Story.

I don't want to overlook her musical contributions, either.  Although Audrey was famously overdubbed for much of the musical content of My Fair Lady (a fact she took as something of a snub at first), she sang all her own songs in Funny Face.  Whilst she may never go down in history as an especially great singer, her heartbreakingly vulnerable version of Moon River in Breakfast At Tiffany's remains my absolute favourite version of the song.  It can bring me to tears, just hearing that longing in her voice.  I identify with it more than I care to admit.  To this day, it's the number one song I'd like to have someone sing for me.

But whilst it's my firm belief that Audrey Hepburn was the most beautiful woman who ever lived, as well as one of the most effortlessly stylish, neither of those things are the reason for her hero status, where I'm concerned.  It's not even her acting skills or that emotional version of Moon River.

It's her.

Audrey came from a difficult start in life.  She  spent much of her youth estranged from her father, which affected her deeply.  She experienced extreme hunger during the war, developing various medical conditions as a result of malnutrition.  During the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, she witnessed street executions as well as Jews being sent to their deaths at concentration camps.  And yet she maintained her belief in people's goodness.  She strived for a better life for herself and those around her.

Despite the wealth and fame that Audrey had, she never lost her belief that it was family and love that really mattered.  As she got older, she turned down movies and shunned many of the celebrity parties her peers attended, in favour of being a stay-at-home mother.  She found enormous joy in cooking dinners for her two sons and ensuring she was on hand to read them bedtime stories.  She strived never to put fame before her real life.  She conducted herself with grace and spoke about real beauty coming from within, despite having an abundance of it on the outside, too.  

Audrey's love was also not contained only to her family.  She had a passionate desire to help those less fortunate than she was.  This "terrible need to give (affection)" drove her to become a UNICEF Ambassador in later life.  Travelling to some of the most impoverished parts of the world, Audrey held hands with people suffering with AIDS at a time when the world still believed it could be caught through touch.  She fed malnourished children and gave emotional speeches, urging people in power to help those in need.  Audrey continued dedicating herself to the role of Ambassador, travelling across the globe to raise awareness of the plight of others, even when she was suffering with the pancreatic cancer that would eventually take her life at the age of just 63.

Audrey was everything I strive to be in my own life; someone who loves wholeheartedly and without shame.  Someone who tries to help and support others and is unafraid to put herself second in order to do so.  Someone who has experienced difficult, hurtful things, but still sees the good in people.  Someone who understands that real beauty is not about having perfect facial features or a fashionable outfit, but about having kindness, humour and humility.

I could easily have written about actual stars, tonight.  I love looking to the skies and seeing the vastness of space.  I refer to myself as loving "anything with stars or hearts on."  

But for me, the chance to write about this incredible woman is never one that can be passed up.  Audrey was one of the brightest stars to ever shine.

And so she will always remain.