Beauty

"What does it mean to be beautiful?"

ask that question to a five year old, and you will more than likely get a very different answer than if you asked an eighteen year old. Little kids aren't hung up on or try to look like the celebrities they see on their TV screens, but rather are more interested in laughing at their favorite episode of Hannah Montana. As their bodies grow and develop, the feelings they have on beauty may change drastically. The little girl with naturally curly brown hair who loved to be the center of attention and get in every picture possible ten years down the road becomes an insecure teenager with dyed blonde hair who shies away from pictures because she hates the way she looks in them. Leaving one question: at what age does our idea of beauty change? When did we stop thinking we were beautiful? It could have been at age ten, when we had a sudden growth spurt and were suddenly the tallest in the grade, or at age eleven, when we got our first pimple the night before seventh grade picture day, or even at age seventeen, when we realized we didn’t have the exact same body proportions as Kim Kardashian. What we really need to remember, though, is that everyone is beautiful in their own way. The sooner we realize this the sooner we can work on accepting ourselves for who we are. Everybody deserves to have self confidence no matter what size their jeans are or what color their skin is.

Kids should be brought up on the idea that what's on the inside is far more important than whats important on the outside. If you feel beautiful, then it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks. How many good looking people do you know with horrible, mean personalities? Those kind of people may be physically appealing, but their attitudes sour our idea of them, leaving them to appear ugly in our eyes. We all need to learn to stop comparing ourselves to others, and instead trying to be the best version of ourself possible. Everyone is different, everyone has flaws, and everyone in the world is unique. Because how boring would it be if everybody looked and acted the same? Most importantly, smile! Being happy and doing what you like and are good at will make you feel and look beautiful always!

In Dove's new commerical, able to be viewed above, a lot of what I have been talking about through this blog was addressed. It shows women covering their faces and hiding away from the camera, versus the younger children loving every second of the attention. All the women shown in this commercial were beautiful, whether they knew it or not. It is so important that we all believe that about ourselves so we don't later become insecure or want to change things about ourselves.