>>Look at it, look at this double chin.

Look at it, look at it.

I look in the mirror and I see an old woman.

Sorry but there's nothing you can do to help with this face.

My show is called "In My Chair" and it is about radical self acceptance.

I'm an actor, but every actor needs a side hustle.

So I became a makeup artist.

After doing makeup for over a decade, I started noticing a pattern that within the first three seconds of sitting in my makeup chair, almost every woman would apologize to me for the way she looked.

I realized that I did the same thing, I apologize too.

So I spoke about this in a TEDxRVA woman talk and the talk went online, it went all around the world.

5,200 (gasps) then almost overnight, 500,000 Eva, your talk is a virus.

(gasps) (audience laughing) And the views began to rise, and speaking engagements started coming in, and then emails, tweets and messages from women all over the world started coming in.

(inspiring music) I physically took my make-up chair around the world, eight countries, 44 days.

And I met so many of these women and had them sit in my chair and share their story.

And as well as my own stories woven throughout the show.

So I was this free happy kid.

I was, you know, played army in the woods grew up in Pennsylvania and in the Pocono Mountains.

And then outside of Philadelphia was where I was mostly raised.

But I was so free.

And I remember how it changed (clicks) just like that.

It was in kindergarten.

And the first time I heard a young boy, say, "You have a big nose."

And I was like, "What?"

How big could it be, It was six years old, I mean.

After that, I started hearing it more and more and realized that oh, my body is a disappointment to the world.

And this was the messaging I heard year after year after year and then as a woman and a young girl your body is picked apart from your thighs to your butt.

And normative discontent is the term coined by researchers, Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore.

They did all this research on women in their early teens on up into their 90s and what they found is that women even into their 90s in the studies were still never satisfied with the way they looked.

This normative discontent there is a character I made out of that.

Everybody say, hi, Norma.

>>Hi, Norma.

>>Ah, oh, blah, hi, everybody.

(audience laughing) Sorry, I know I look like absolute crap.

Shh, Norma, quit it.

I feel sorry for the camera man over there.

He has to look at your profile, the whole time.

Norma, he's fine over there, okay.

He's seeing a free show over there, he's fine.

(audience laughing) I just received the most incredible email from a father who saw my show.

And he has two twin girls.

He said, "Thank you for giving me the language "to talk about Normas at the table "when something is bothering them."

It's Norma, and shh, shh, quiet down, Norma.

Sorry is the new hello, oh that's good I have to write that down.

So I would put myself down.

And I learned, I also did the research, what is that?

And that's called preemptive defense.

Dr.

Cynthia Bulik, she wrote it in a book.

We attack our own perceived flaws before anybody else can.

So in a way we make ourselves the enemy.

Hello, friend, oh God, sorry.

That apologetic greeting that women have when we see each other for the first time like, hi so good to see you, instead of saying, hello, friend, we go "Oh, God so sorry, you're looking at me like this, I just came from yoga, "I'm probably gross, oh, God."

I didn't expect to see anybody, okay, take care.

Stop looking at me, stop okay, okay.

But I do it in emails at the beginning of sentences.

Sorry this is so late, sorry.

Thanks for your patience.

And just flipping it, so deciding to end the apology and I'm proud to say that sorry-osis is currently being eradicated in the Richmond metro area.

All around the world, I asked audiences this.

Nevis, what's the first word or name you can think of, for a woman who speaks up, don't censor yourself?

Bitch, loud, shrill.

Well, yeah, yeah, what do we call a man who speaks up?

Maverick, straight-shooter, a leader.

So I thought oh my gosh, we just need to claim that word.

And so I made women claim the word leader all over the world.

Just start saying it over and I made the audience say, "We support you."

I'm a leader.

>>We support you.

I think that it's going to take more women, 50/50 by 2020, going into politics, going into spaces of leadership and being in charge, and that's not to put men down.

No, it's about bringing women up to equal status.

And that's what it's going to take, is women speaking up, speaking out about these issues.

I'm a leader.

>>We support you.

Scott Wichmann is my husband, who is just an amazing actor, and his niche, is also solo performance.

We both are kind of solo performance actors.

So he is so incredibly supportive.

I love acting but.

I also talk about in my show, I have a history of experiencing bad relationships, abuse, assault.

I'm fine, give me that phone.

Don't ever call or talk to Eva, ever again.

In the mid 2000s, I was in New York City and I made a phone call to a women's Crisis Center.

I didn't know what to do.

It was one of the worst days of my life.

And there were women on the other side there that were so supportive of me and told me what to do.

How many men?

I don't care what time it is, how many men have you slept with?

(glass crashing) Taxi.

And I bought a one-way ticket out of New York.

And I left all my dreams behind.

I'm the strongest, most outspoken person that I know.

I didn't think things like this, assault, happens to people like me, especially with people you trust.

This was a person that I looked up to.

First it was a lot of shame for many years.

But since I went on this, writing this mission.

The metoo movement, happened in the middle of me writing this show.

So it has been quite a journey of awakening and all these other women saying, "Me too."

A woman stood up, I have been cast out of my family and friends because I left my husband, who abused me and my children.

We support you, we support you, we support you, group hug!

And I found myself in the middle of a giant, communal embrace with all of these beautiful, soulful, brilliant, listen women.

I'm obsessed with connection of really seeing people and getting them to see me.

And every single time, across political spectrums, the room changes, and everyone supports one another.

We breathe together in a theater.

We laugh together in a theater.

Do we know is Socrates made the hot or not list?

(audience laughing) Once we are no longer desirable, that's our worth.

That's what it's been in this culture.

And it's not going anywhere unless we do something, unless we rage against it, we change the culture.

Stop putting each other down about the way we look, we women, and I think gathering in groups, talking about it, sharing your story, your struggle, your strengths with people.

That makes all the difference too.

So I just wanna keep the conversation going.

I'm super optimistic.

>>To keep the positivity ripple going, Eva suggests starting a positive post pal bag.

Have friends and people you meet, write a short affirmation and put it in your bag where they can pull out another affirmation for themselves.

You can find Eva's full interview at vpm.org/VirginiaCurrents and click on Currents Uncut.