My “Beauty” Opinion
I am a firm believer that ‘beauty is what’s on the inside’, and that ‘everyone’s beautiful’. Call me a hippie but I truly do believe that every girl is beautiful in their own way, and I couldn’t imagine looking at someone and calling them ugly because they’re a little bigger, or darker or even lighter than me. However, living in the real world and tuning back to reality there’s something called low self-esteem, or just plain feeling self-conscious, or ugly and wanting to feel prettier. I’m guilty of buying make up, and wearing it ritually. I like to switch my hair up (getting extensions, dying it, etc.) and I do want to lose a little weight. I do these things not to be pretty, or to be able to say that I am pretty or beautiful, but to feel good. If somewhere in the back of your mind – doing something or wearing something makes you feel a little more confident, I say go for it…

WEIGHT: Ok, so doctors have this chart that matches up your height with the “appropriate” weight right? There are other factors though. Women tend to have more weight than men, ethnic women tend to have more weight than white women, we eat when we’re stressed, when we’re bored, when we’re celebrating or when we’re sad. And than we turn around and we look at a magazine and we see a model, that’s all skin and bones in a bikini, and she’s “perfect” right? So what do we do? We stop eating, we diet. Some of us stick a finger down out throat or take laxatives to lose weight. For what? To look like someone in a magazine? Who gets paid to look like that. Well most of us won’t grow up to be paid for the way we look, so we should be happy with we’ve got. I personally think as long as you’re healthy, you’re good. I definitely agree with working out. I don’t agree with dieting, I think you should just watch what you eat, and eat healthy, but working out never hurts anyone.

HAIR: Ok, being that I am a girl, hair is already controversial, but being that I am black (mixed…) hair for me is very controversial. Some people think natural is the way to go, and then there are others who are all about weaves, and extensions. I for one love extensions and I love natural hair. If you have hair, where it how you want. Be expressive. I like to switch it up a lot. One day I want long hair down my back, and a week later I want a pixie cut. Not that every time has to be such a drastic change of style, but be self-expressive. Whether it be extensions, short, long, natural, curly or straight hair, rock it,

MAKE UP: Again, I wear makeup ritually. For me, I like to wear makeup, to feel good. It’s something to do, a way to feel pretty. However, I don’t think every single girl NEEDS to wear makeup. It’s definitely not something that should overall control your self-esteem. Ladies should be comfortable skin their own, beautiful skin without makeup, and I stand by that.

Overall, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I believe whatever suits you, go for it. Most importantly though, EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL! No matter how much makeup you don’t wear, or how short your hair is. Just know we are all beautiful, and spread the word.