It's a sensitive issue that has to be addressed carefully, so I'll try my best. However everything said in here is my own opinion and i'd love to hear yours too so don't be afraid to comment below, by all means i'll reply.
What's Perfect, What's Beautiful?
Beautiful: pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically.
In my opinion, there is no such thing as Perfect. Why? We're human beings, just people that got put here on Earth all different in appearance and character. However it is safe to say that we have a perfect stereotype, these vary where you go and in which categories you see them. A popular stereotype for the perfect women in today's society according to the media is a woman who is or has:
- Light Skinned or White
- A big behind and bust
- Curved at the waist
- Not ridiculously tall
- and I could go on forever.
That is what people strive to be, just because it's what a lot of people see as perfect and as much as this is portrayed it gets into peoples heads and it turns there view of perfection into something else. As for me, I think there's no such thing as one type of perfection, many different types of perfections exist because there are different types of people who think differently.
People includes myself, but my aim in life is happiness. Living up to stereotypes of perfect will not make me happy because there's just too much involved. Undergoing processes to change yourself can be painful, where's the happiness in that?
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| A selfie with no filter or sun |
As many of you know or have seen I'm dark skinned, (I'm not making anyone feel sorry for me by writing any of this it's just an example) and i'm no where near light skinned. I'm guilty sometimes of making myself try to look like it - but that's honestly a mistake. (Taking selfies in the direction of the sun just gives a nicer look to the selfie and makes it brighter. It doesn't always mean some one is trying to change the colour).
It's always been hard for me in this day and age, feeling like your just "too dark" to jump into the picture. Social networks don't make people like me feel any better either because all we see is #teamlightskinned #teamdarkskinned.
Since when did we group ourselves in teams according to our skin colours? Aren't we supposed to be united? Everything that our ancestors ever fought for is so that we could live happily today and yet we still want to divide ourselves back to how it was, just this time using hashtags.
Guys (Most guys) like light skinned girls. This is because lots of the most successful women in society are light skinned. Many started dark and went to light. This is nobody's fault. History takes us way back and has always shown that the lighter and closer you are to white the more superior you are. Nazi Germany and the Slave trade are examples of this. It's not our fault we have these ideas in our head, it's history's fault. It will be our fault if we go to our graves with it still being this way. With regards to me, i'm so proud of where I from. Sometimes the name calling and the jokes and media can get to me but it can't get to me that much to make me bleach my skin.
2. Lauren and her body
Generally in my family we are quite slim and tall. My Gran loves to make jokes that we could all be models. I'll let this off my chest now, it's bothered me for ages that I don't have much of a behind. If you follow me on instagram you'll know that my feed is mostly my drawings and selifes. I'm not confident about my body because of what everybody else thinks. I'm young and maybe it's not time for curves so I don't really know about them yet.What did I do about this?
Well, Lauren was stupid enough to sit down for some hours and do some research about what makes your bottom naturally bigger. Waste of my time - literally. I came to a conclusion that squats would help me get more of a waist. So, I tried these for a few days and this is an example of me trying to be "perfect". The squats were tiring (I hate sport lol) my legs and body ached the next morning and I just thought forget it! It hurts and I'm unhappy, it's not worth it. I have to accept who I am. I believe God made me this way and who am I to tamper with what he's created?
3. Makeup
It may or may not be obvious but I don't use makeup a lot or that often. My parents don't approve of me wearing so much but they are okay with me wearing a bit to an occasion. I just think that makeup is a very scary thing if you don't know how to do it properly. Our generation has taken it way to far, eyebrows are looking like roads to heaven and hell, faces are looking like traffic lights just to go out for a link up with friends. Makeup is to enhance your features. No need to fix anything God's already put his paintbrush on. Makeup is to enhance your features, not to create new features, new skin tones and God knows what... I'm sorry if I offended anyone but whether you choose to take it seriously or not is your choice - I'm just a teenage girl who happens to express her feelings in a blog.
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| Without any makeup in the garden |
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| With makeup at my church talent show. |
The pressure is on us girls to be a size 8-10 and just look "Flawless". So today guys or girls, when someone compliments you tell them "I woke up like this!" This is how I am - flawless. Curves or no curves, Skinny or not, Makeup or not, Light or not, Superstar or not, Popular or not.
Who is anybody to tell you that you're unpretty? Stop trying to make yourself perfect and just be you, because you're amazing . If you don't love yourself then who will?
Two songs to listen to which might explain this better: TLC - Unpretty and J cole ft TLC - Crooked Smile
Thanks so much for reading guys, do comment and the cover of pretty hurts will be up real soon!
