More Than A Pretty Face: Marilyn Monroe's Advice For Women

From an impoverished and unfortunate childhood, Marilyn Monroe rose to an unbelievably successful career and "starlet status" as a celebrity by time she finished filming just 30 movies.

With her cool-girl attitude and crazy curves, it's no surprise that she has been forever immortalized as "the original sex symbol."

And, with her incredibly iconic hair and beauty-look (women still attempt to imitate her style even today), it's certainly no shocker that makeup maven Max Factor has chosen her to be the new face of the brand. (Her status as a beauty icon is actually thanks to the work of Max Factor's beauty experts!)

With so much focus on her image, though, it's important to remember that Marilyn Monroe was actually quite an inspiring woman, encouraging those she met to embrace their imperfections and to acknowledge their faults as something that made them unique and beautiful.

"I want to grow old without face-lifts. ... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face that I have made," she said, although due to her early death we never did get to see the face that Marilyn would make.

Despite a few failed marriages, much of Marilyn's love advice is still valued and worth following even today! Some of her best advice?

"It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone."

And, of course, "Men who think that a woman's past love affairs lessen her love for them are stupid. A woman can bring a new love to each man that she loves, providing that there are not too many."

Despite the fame and the wonder of seeing her name up in lights, Marilyn never lost her sense of humor. "Speaking of Oscars," she once said, "I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy."

Despite all of the mystique associated with her name, Monroe was actually fairly forthcoming! "I've been on a calendar, but never on time," she stated. "My sin has been no more than I have written, posing for the nude because I desperately needed 50 dollars to get my car out of hock," she admitted when asked about her famous nude calendar pose in 1949.

Obviously, the woman was gorgeous but so much more than a pretty face.

She owned 400 books at the time of her death and was an avid reader and writer of poetry. Walt Whitman was one of her favorite writers. She often carried around Abraham Lincoln's biography and was quoted discussing Sigmund Freud's thoughts on both Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky.

Over 600 books have been written about her despite the fact that her lifelong battle with self-destructive habits and depression often negatively impacted her skill as an actress.

There are actually lessons to be learned from her rise to fame and fortune as well as her downright depressing battle with drugs and her death. One of the most important lessons to be learned from her life is actually quite simple despite her complexity as a woman: Just never stop striving.

Time and time again Marilyn was quoted on her desire to be a better actress, a better lover, a better woman, and a better, happier person. It would seem that one of her biggest lessons was to never stop growing, and her fame certainly hasnt!

"We are all of stars," Marilyn said, "and we deserve to twinkle."

Well, no doubt, Max Factor's ad campaign will let Marilyn show us all how to once more. ...