The Beauty Problem No One Want’s To Talk About

We live in a world filled with unattainable beauty standards, insecure women and cosmetic industries that thrive from these insecurities. It’s exhausting to have to be told how to look like in order to be considered beautiful. Throughout many years, society has defined beauty based on ‘attractiveness’ and has managed to portray this idea of a ‘perfect woman’ and deeply ingrain it all over the media.

Although many of us understand that our external beauty holds no worth in comparison to our internal beauty, why does this make no difference? Why do we continue to seek validation from everyone else but ourselves? Why do we compare our appearances to filtered and edited pictures on social media? Why do we apologise for not wearing makeup, instead of embracing our natural beauty?

 

As easy as it is to say, many of us do struggle to accept ourselves. We criticise our flaws, stare at them long and hard in the mirror and hide them. With all the demands of having the perfect face and body, we also find it hard to love who we are. According to research by Dove, ‘Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful’. When I first saw this figure, I was shocked.

Perhaps like me, you re-read it to make sure that you hadn’t made a mistake. How could 96% of women possibly believe they are not beautiful? This is a sad reality that has to be faced.

The image that the media so strongly holds about beauty and perfection is nothing but a deception. Thousands of women are blinded by the superficial idea of beauty.

Think about all those women that have ever been on the front cover of Vogue. Even them, who are meant to be beautiful by definition, are photo shopped from head to toe in order to be perfect.

So why have we chosen to conform to society’s unreachable standards?

 

To me, beauty is not about having long thick hair or a thin waist. What holds value is the raw beauty inside of you. There’s no point trying to live your life meeting the expectations of others.

Time has to be taken to understand your beauty and what it really means to love all of who you are. In my definition of beauty, what matters is the love in your heart, the profoundness of your mind and the depths of your soul.  Most importantly, only I have the right to define my beauty.