Shaun Robinson - Celebrity Guest Editor

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Shaun Robinson on Staying True to Yourself in Hollywood

By Chloe Harris Frankeny on

. . .

Shaun Robinson (Getty Images)

Shaun Robinson
There are those famous people who use celebrity to get stuff—better clothes, bigger houses, VIP access, plastic surgery. Then there are others who view their public platform as an opportunity to give something back. Access Hollywood anchor and StyleBistro guest editor Shaun Robinson is among the higher class of star.

Throughout her tenure as a TV hostess, Shaun has volunteered for various noble causes ranging from child literacy to Jackets for Jobs. But it is Shaun's endless advocacy for and support of young girls that really captures our heart. Shaun is board member at Girls Inc., a non-profit that seeks to inspire girls to "be strong, be smart, be bold." She is also author of the book Exactly As I Am, which chronicles the stories of normal young girls alongside prominent women celebrities who share their own past struggles with confidence and self-esteem.

The book's famous messengers of inner beauty—including Julianne Moore, Jennifer Hudson and Oprah—really drive it home: You are beautiful—period. But Shaun is the first to admit that she too wavers in her self-confidence from time to time, noting that Hollywood is exactly the easiest place to be comfortable in your own skin. She says,

I interview the most beautiful, talented, wealthy people on the planet. And are there times when I feel kind of like, uh wow, I wish I had what that girl has? Sure there are times, but they're just flashes in a moment. Then I look at myself and I go, okay, I'm doing pretty well, and I'm happy with the person I am and the way that I look. Another girl may look at me and say, 'I wish I had what Shaun Robinson has.' You know, it's really all relative and I think we really have to understand that.
Shaun says she finds so much inspiratin in Hollywood's singular starlets, naming both India.Arie and Jennifer Aniston among tinseltown's positive role models. She recalls having interviewed Jen at press junket for the movie Just Go With It, costarring Brooklyn Decker. She says,

I asked her was she intimidated at all and she said, 'No, no not really. You know I work out, keep in shape, try to do the best I can and I got what I got.' And I just thought that was such a healthy way to look it because there ain't no way I would do a thing with a 24-year-old swimsuit model!
There's that flash again! But as Shaun says, it's just a flat. "The journey to true self-esteem is a lifelong one," she admits. "It's not something that you ever reach, but you find yourself becoming more and more comfortable in your own skin...As you mature and you really start to realize that you're so much more than what, oftentimes, society tells us we are, you just become more solid with yourself, more forgiving of your flaws, and happy with the person that you are.

Cheers to that! Get more exclusive dish from Shaun Robinson here: