If you have ever taken a glance at my Pinterest boards you will know, with exactly 230 pins (at the time of my writing this), beauty is something I enjoy spending time on and also discussing. I love being a girly girl: hair, make-up, nails, and clothing (which has it's own Pinterest board.) But at the end of the day, true, timeless beauty comes from the soul.
I have had low self-esteem for my entire life, basically, but as I've gotten older not only have I grown and changed, becoming more beautiful on the outside, but I have become more beautiful on the inside. No matter the amount of time spent on applying flawless make-up or who you hire to give you the trendiest Cut & Color, you will not be beautiful without the actions and mindset of a wholly, entirely beautiful person.
Intelligence is beautiful. Hard work is beautiful. Selfless acts of kindness are beautiful. Forgiveness is beautiful. Humility is beautiful. Thoughtfulness is beautiful. Open-mindedness is beautiful.
I was speaking with a close friend of mine about beauty yesterday after seeing several Facebook posts for the 5 Photos of Beauty Challenge that was occurring in my newsfeed (one I participated in) along with a Buzzfeed post we read. We began discussing music and why so many popular songs are centered around the idea that a beautiful woman doesn't know that she's beautiful and that is what makes her beautiful. If you are a woman, surely you can relate with not feeling beautiful. Unfortunately, America is still very much behind a lot of the world when it comes to the idea and practice of feminism (def. - a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.) We live in a patriarchy (def. - a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it), dear readers and what my friend and I came across was that this patriarchal society also feeds on the disempowerment of women, as if a woman could never be beautiful if society and the media and advertisements and the fashion industry tell her she isn't. On the outside.
But aren't we lucky to be smarter than that? (A good deal of us anyway...)
Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, but that beauty can be shown in so many different ways. I also believe the reaction you have to the approval/disapproval of your outer beauty has a lot to say about how beautiful you are on the inside, as well.
You don't have to wear make-up or be a size 2 to be beautiful. You simply just have to be beautiful.
