In today's society, it is not easy to feel truly beautiful. Everywhere we turn, we as women are bombarded with images and voices telling us that we are imperfect creatures. Millions of dollars are made by various companies and advertisers telling us that WE can achieve perfection by buying some "beautiful" product; eating or not eating certain foods, exercising with this or that equipment, masking or revealing certain body parts... Lord, it never ends.
Unfortunately for a large number of women, we literally "buy into" it. We spend dollar after dollar on beauty products that pile up one by one in our "makeup" drawer, exercise videos and exercise aids from one "perfect" physical specimen after another (who can now afford liposuction with our hard-earned money ), chemical processes and extensions in our hair to achieve the most "flattering" styles possible, we offer bodies to sacrificial beauty change to plucking, waxing, shaving, exfoliating, pinching, setting and for what? So can we continue to chase the ever-unattainable ideal of beauty?
Don't get me wrong, I prefer to shave my legs, wear nail polish, lipstick, and makeup (when I know I'm going somewhere with a better grocery store), and not wear socks with my sandals. But I'd like to think that if I woke up one day and couldn't pick up one beauty product, relax my ethnic hair, or lose those 5 extra pounds; I would know that I am still a beautiful woman. And foreign physical equipment aside, I would not cease to be a beautiful unique human being.
This is what worries me now that I have a daughter. I look to the future and dread the day she comes home crying (like many kids) because someone at school told her she was ugly. As we all know, children can be cruel and usually repeat the things they hear and learn at home.
I would like to be able to not only tell her with my loving words but also show her by my life example that she is a beautiful girl. I want her to see that she is beautiful; not because of what they wear on their body or face or hair or how much they weigh. I want my daughter to grow up knowing that true beauty is what comes from within and radiates outward in the acts of kindness and consideration you give to others, in the way you love and respect yourself, and in the joy you get from sharing time with family. and the friends and sacrifices you make so others can be happy. True beauty is loving yourself no matter what your shade, size, financial or educational situation. I hope that as she grows up in this increasingly appearance-obsessed world, she can walk through each reflection of herself with a smile of safety and peace. I'm just getting to that place myself.
It took me many years of spending and self-doubt to finally realize that you can't find in a bottle what can only come from within.
Written by Felica D. DLP
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