Young ladies in the community were invited to attend a recent Spoiling Every Lovely Female event at Ziegels Union Church, Breinigsville.

The April 20 event, organized by Kim McHenry, was designed to empower girls in grades four through 10 (and their mothers) to help them make healthy choices as they become young adults.

The girls learned to apply makeup, were given tips on hairstyles, painted their nails and had their photos taken by Sarah Miller of Smidge Marie Photography, Lehighton.

Representatives of Turning Point and the Crime Victims Council, both of Allentown, and One Body Wellness Center shared information with the mothers and their daughters.

Lehigh Valley vocalist Sarah Ayers spoke to the 30 young ladies, 10 moms and 17 staff volunteers.

UCC Pastor Candi Cain-Borgman introduced Ayers and thanked her for returning to speak to the group.

Ayers participated in the first S.E.L.F. event in 2011.

She said supporting the event was easy because empowering young women is something she believes in, and tries to instill in her own two daughters.

Ayers said she was not always comfortable in public, as she was raised on a horse farm without television or the Internet. She just did chores and took care of horses.

Her twin, Rachel, was beautiful, Sarah said, adding she herself weighed 240 pounds and felt unattractive.

"I spent 30 years of my life being known as the sister of the beautiful twin," she said.

"My mother asked me 'Why do you live in your sister's shadow?'" Ayers said. "Because she's cool."

Her mother tried to explain to Ayers she was special just like her sister but Ayers did not believe her.

She looked like a normal person but felt abnormal inside.

Ayers said all young ladies need to understand they are special.

Shen then discussed bullying.

"We all have the potential to be bullies," Ayers said.

She then recounted a story about a schoolmate who was gorgeous and popular in school but who bullied Ayers for the way she looked.

That schoolmate was astonished to discover Ayers lost a great deal of weight and was a successful musical artist.

Ayers was saved from herself by a pastor at the college she attended.

When they first met, he asked Ayers why she felt so badly about herself.

The pastor said he was going to make it his mission to seek her out every day and tell Ayers she was not who she thought she was.

As a result of his attentions, Ayers began to believe in herself.

Looking in a mirror one day, she saw someone different looking back and began liking what she saw.

Ayers then asked the girls the definitions of empathy and sympathy.

Empathy, she said, is understanding others' emotions.

She gave an example a young girl who fell at school and her books went flying.

Do not laugh at her situation, she said. Stop and think about how she may be feeling ... very embarrassed.

Understand what she is feeling.

Sympathy is looking at someone and feeling badly for them.

Empathy is the preferable feeling of the two.

As she prepared to close her talk she performed "Don't Speak," using it as a transition into her song "Mockingbird."

Ayers concluded her message by referring to I Corinthians, Chapter 13.

The chapter begins, "Love is patient, love is kind."

This passage is an inspiration to her and she reflects on it in her daily life.

UCC Pastor Candi Cain-Borgman explained how she reads this Biblical passage.

She inserts her name at the beginning of the sentences.

This way "love is patient, love is kind" becomes Candi is patient, Candi is kind.

She then reflects on what she just read.