The following originally aired on KQED-FM.

By: Derek Williams

I’m so bowlegged that my older brother says I look like I’ve been riding a bull since the day I was born. I stand five foot seven and weigh 380 pounds.

Some days when my knees are giving me a lot of pain I’ll look over at my shadow doing a slow pigeon toed wobble down the street, and I just think to myself how gross and unhealthy I look.

Being overweight is something I’ve dealt with my whole life. Names like doughboy and fatty used to really get to me. But even when kids weren’t being mean, I felt isolated. In the 3rd grade my class took a field trip for Chinese New Year to the Empire Buffet. Chinese food is my favorite, and I was so excited, but then came the bad news…we had to walk eight blocks to the restaurant. Sweaty and out of breath, I eventually stopped to sit on a fire hydrant. I remember the look on some of my classmates' faces when they had to stop and wait for me. I had never felt worse in my life.

I’ve come a long way since then and have my mom to thank for a lot of that. I remember she once told me, “You’re fat simple as that, and until you’re ready to put in the hard work to change, you might as well be the cutest fat boy in the game.”

This story was originally published on 11/26/11, WABE-FM, Atlanta.

By Naomi Stamps

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Some of my confidence has come from my parents who have always told me how beautiful I am. I’m so blessed that they have instilled so many positive and godly things inside of me so that I can brush off any bad things others may say about me.

I try to tell my friends to do what I do. They don’t.

Instead, they compare themselves to Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and other celebrities. They make impossible beauty goals for themselves and then feel bad. When I hear young girls talk about body issues, I always hear my father’s voice saying, “Don’t let someone’s negativity affect you. Let your positive mindset affect them.”

I have mentors who not only teach me skills like playing the piano and creative writing, but also give me positive feedback. Many are women I can look up to and who have real beauty – not the magazine kind.

I’m proud of the way I look. Let the celebrities be who they are, because I am perfectly fine just being me.

Prevoiusly on WABE:

* Family Ties and Mom's New Baby

* Learning American Culture In The Fast Food Lane

Everybody knows that pageants are based on looks and looks only. But does you hair color matter? Apparently it does. Fifteen-year-old Olivia O’Neil was stripped of her crown after dying her blond hair brown. Pageant spokesman Jevan Goulter confirmed the story to The New Zealand Herald saying, "The expectation in holding the crown [was] that she maintain the image she had when she won it."

The New Zealand Herald reports:

Olivia only had the crown for three months when she posted a new profile photograph on her Facebook page showing newly-dyed dark brown hair. Pageant organiser Barbara Osborne saw the picture online and asked: "Is that a wig?"Osborne continued: "I hope it is, don't give me heart failure","Oh my God, I hope it's a demi". "Please tell me that's a wig". Olivia replied saying it was not a wig and if Osborne didn't think it was "pageant worthy" then beauty pageants might not be for her. The comments led to Osborne saying: "Well you better decide, miss. Hand over your crown with an attitude like that. I'm sure someone will step into your place with manners."

But is it really about maintaining your original image? Or is that pageant officials couldn't see pass the brown hair? Whatever the case may be, it's situations like this that make girls insecure about themselves.

According to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), nearly 210,000 cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed on people between the ages of 13-19 in 2009. The reason behind those surgeries was to improve their "awkward" or "flawed" physical characteristics.

Chris Brown's first interview since he beat up Rihanna, will air this Wednesday night on Larry King Live. America is eager to hear from the R&B stars mouth exactly three things: "W! T! F!" Judging from a preview of the interview with the 20-year old Brown sandwiched between his mother Joyce Hawkins and lawyer Mark Geragos, it looks like he's not going to offer up any real explanation. We will get to hear exactly what type of emotional trauma from his childhood (which his mother should expound upon) led up to what his loved ones call "strange behavior".

But, honestly, who cares about that? The real question at hand is: can he come back from this devastating blow to his "good boy" image and maintain a career as an entertainer? Pop culture history gives us some examples to look at here.