Article By: Megan Stremick

When I was a little girl I was an adorable little pudge ball with dark curly hair and big brown eyes, I had a personality the size of Texas and was considered the chatter box of any group. I talked my mom’s ears off all day, every day and finally when I was about five years old she thought with my big cheeks and even bigger mouth I would be perfect for commercials.

She started taking me to auditions and on the way there I would talk, talk, talk but to her surprise once she put me in the room with the casting directors I would clam up tight, barely giving them a simple “hi my name is”. And to make it even more frustrating for my mom I would then get back in the car and talk, talk, talk, all the way home. Needless to say I never starred in any commercials.

Present day, I have grown up and I’m now a mom of a one year old. I still have the same dark curly hair and full cheeks and I am still the biggest chatter box in any group (especially those groups that drink wine). When the 8^th Continent  Nice Job Mom campaign started underway and it was time to do a video to introduce the contest I was asked to step in front of the camera and talk to you, my fellow moms, and “be myself”.

Of course there was a script because there were a lot of things that we at 8^th Continent wanted to be sure we relayed about what the Nice Job Mom contest is all about and how you can participate. So I had to read it but again it was stressed that I needed to “be myself”.

When I arrived for the filming there was no one to pick out what I should wear and no one to do my hair and make-up—and I just thought “Wow, they really want to film me just as I am—they aren’t going to pretty me up or anything—this should be interesting”. There was no one coaching me on how my expressions should be or how to give the right inflections at the right time—it was just me being…well…awkward.

I’ll be honest, I tried my hardest to “be myself” but every time the camera rolled the butterflies started fluttering in my stomach and the words just started coming out of my mouth and my face started moving and my voice starting changing and I was thinking “who is talking right now, this can’t be me, this doesn’t sound like me”. As much as I tried to be myself and as genuine as the words were that came out of my mouth it was almost like I was having an out of body experience.

By take 15, I thought I hit my stride with the my words but then I’d get to the part where I pronounce ‘sweepstakes’ and all of a sudden I developed a lisp that I never had before. This was so much harder than I thought it was going to be me—and all I’m doing is “being myself”.

Have you ever watched a movie and looked at the actors and thought “I can totally do that, I could act and make millions of dollars”? Well, I have thought that a million times and I will tell you that after doing this little two minute video I would be homeless and hungry if I tried to make a living being an actress. I have a new-found respect for all of the actors that we watch who make it look so real and quite frankly, make it look easy.

So, please, when you watch the video where I introduce 8^th Continents Nice Job Mom contest, have mercy on me. Try to get past my cheesy expressions and inflections and focus on the contest. Oh, and don’t forget to browse other mom stories and share your own.