March is officially National Women’s Month! (More informative posts can be found behind these links).

In honor of that celebration, I’d like to introduce a new series devoted to women who truly represent the wholestyle ideal: Wholestyle Icons. These are ladies who are strong and sassy, driven and daring, bold and beautiful, movers and shakers.  They’re famous and infamous, noteworthy and notorious, celebrated and uncelebrated.  They’re the role models that live and breathe every aspect of wholestyle.

And our very first icon is…

Sandra Bullock

via blog.movieposterseurope.com

Ever since seeing While  You Were Sleeping as a tween, I’ve been a fan of Sandra Bullock.  That hair, that smile, that charisma!  Sure, her movies aren’t always spectacular *cough*MissCongeniality2*cough*, but she herself is consistently warm, cheerful, and inspiring.  As I’ve grown up and learned more about her, I find that Sandra is actually more than just an actress – she’s a wholestyle icon.

Did you know she owns three different companies?  Sister’s an entrepreneur!  Her film production company, Fortis Films, was formed way back in 1998 and is responsible for Hope Floats, Practical Magic (my personal fav Sandra movie) and, cringingly, many episodes of George Lopez. In 2006, she opened Bess Bistro in Austin, Texas and has enjoyed wide success by way of recommendation in the glossies.  The menu is a mix of your standard bistro fare and a few drool-worthy surprises.  Pumpkin saffron seafood risotto or chile-rubbed quail, anyone?  The offshoot of this company is Walton’s Fancy and Staple, an event-planning service that includes floral and catering.  This place even does walk-in serious gourmet coffee, deli meats and cheeses.  Mmm…cheese…

Plus!  She’s done some super charity work in disaster relief, education, and health arenas. Over the years, she’s allied herself with Beauty Bus, Partners in Health, Warren Easton Charter Foundation, American Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders, to name a few.  Scores of people have been helped and cities have been able to start rebuilding with the millions of dollars she’s donated.  But she doesn’t let the publicity go to her head – she’s shy about it.

As if her business savvy and her generous heart weren’t enough to earn her place among the wholestyle icons, Sandra is a wonderful healthy-body role model and she’s certainly one hell of a snappy dresser.  Look at this sexy, stylin’ lady:

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via exposay.com

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via jaded4good.wordpress.com

courtesy of HelloMagazine

Okay, so that last one is a little offsides, but it’s in there for a reason, I swear.  Look at that body.   Doesn’t look like your standard scary-diet, over-airbrushed, unhealthy celebrity body, does it?  And she loooooves that body.  It’s healthy, it’s beautiful, and it’s hers.  She owns that thing!

Sandra Bullock encompasses so many of the qualities that wholestyle is all about.  She’s generous of heart and pocket, driven and inspired, loves herself and the body she’s got, and damn, but she’s got fashion sense.  Let’s wrap this up with a little bit of wisdom from the lady herself:

I’ve made mistakes, and I know why I made them, but I made that choice. Nobody’s ever made a choice for me.

I’m a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it’s bad or good.

I have an expensive hobby: buying homes, redoing them, tearing them down and building them up the way they want to be built. I want to be an architect.

Does age matter? Time doesn’t matter.

Falling in love-you should go with it, regardless of whether or not your heart gets smashed. You’ll be a better person.

Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts. You have to remember this when you find yourself at the beginning

PS – I’d like to thank the lovely Miss Elle at Broke & Beautiful for reminding me how awesome Sandra is with this post.  Thanks, dollface!

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