I had a great experience this year modeling. I wasn’t the kind of model that is expected to be beautiful. I was a yoga model and got to be strong and graceful demonstrating yoga poses. My mom writes books and teaches teens yoga. I was in her first book, I Love Yoga, when I was much younger. Now as a teen I had the chance to be in her book Breathe: Yoga for Teens, which just came out! Doing yoga is a really fun experience so I thought I would tell you about it.

I was four years old when I started doing yoga. I remember doing it all the time in our family room. What I love about yoga now is that it helps me overcome fears and problems. It makes me feel calm and takes me away from the busy world of school. Some people ask me if yoga is hard, or if you feel silly doing some of the poses. When you have done yoga for a while, you no longer care about looking silly. I’ve done it for so long that I never worry about making mistakes. When you are doing yoga, you only think about yourself and what you are doing, and not about anyone else.

My mother’s book comes with a DVD that shows all the poses and then the same poses modified. I demonstrated the modified versions. The DVD also has fun yoga bloopers, so you can see how hard it is to really hold those poses for a long time. Some are held on and off for an hour! Making the DVD was both a lot of work and a lot of fun because everyone at the shoot was silly and fun to be around, including my crazy mom. And was I sore the next day!

My favorite poses are Warrior One, Warrior Two, and Warrior Three. I love these because they make me feel really open and give me a sense of pride. But it’s hard to narrow down my favorites because I love them all! I love practicing to yoga music like “Mantra Girl” and “Spirits of the Rain Forest,” but we also practice to Seal, Sting, The Dixie Chicks, and Faith Hill.

Friends ask me what it’s like living with my mom since she’s not your average mom. She’ll do yoga anywhere. Once at Thanksgiving, she did the splits on the wall. And she really does like to turn out the lights with her toes while walking on her hands!

It’s cool because I feel like I have been practicing yoga my whole life. Whenever I have a question, she can always answer it. I feel healthy, and it’s fun. She never forced yoga on me but I never want to miss a class. I hope one day you will discover yoga too. It’s great!