Have you ever noticed today how girls are under constant attack all the time? I have and it’s also something I have to deal with. I watch as girls are pressured into things they don’t want to do because “It’ll make them look like the stars.” However, these procedures often have no effect, yet they damage the natural beauty that was already there. The things that are attacked most often are clothing, faces, and personalities.
It is an increasing trend that is starting to affect little girls as well as “big” girls. In 2005 a survey showed that the average age of a girl wearing makeup was 17 now it is in the range of 13.7 that’s quite the decrease. The cause of all of this is the bigger pressure on young women to think that they don’t look good the way they are. There is a commercial that shows a young woman going in to a studio and getting her makeup and hair done and then a picture taken. After that picture is taken it is tweaked to make her look almost inhuman, and then it is placed on a billboard for the entire world to see. You see the attack that girls, mainly teens, go through? To see that perfect face that isn’t even real and think we have to look like that.
When Sarah Darr, a mother of two girls, sees students in her eight-year-olds class wearing makeup she says to herself, "I think, 'Who let you outside of the house with that on?' It's trashy and irresponsible looking. We are having our kids grow up earlier." The fact is you don’t need to wear makeup until the later years of Junior High, and even then you may not need it at all.
The general Young Women’s President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elaine S. Dalton, said this in encouraging the young women of the church, “I learned about what I now call “deep beauty”—the kind of beauty that shines from the inside out. It is the kind of beauty that cannot be painted on, surgically created, or purchased. It is the kind of beauty that doesn’t wash off.” There is that beauty out there, Sister Dalton calls it spiritual attractiveness, but I think it also extends to the natural beauty each one of us has inside. Some girls attempt to hide this under layers of makeup, but really there’s no need to do that.
The other kind of beauty is one of an inner beauty that Sister Dalton also mentioned. There is a light burning deep within one’s soul called a personality. This thing is something that defines us all. We not only look different from each other, but we are different from each other. We all have something about us that sets apart and nothing can tear that away but ourselves. This happens when we don’t think we are any good and that our personality is wrong and that someone will think us silly. When that happens we tend to build a wall around ourselves and make a fake personality that is not us at all. However, when this happens we tend to attract people that are totally different than us and that sometimes don’t have our standards. When I think of inner beauty I think of the true personality of someone around me, and their personal beauty is reflected by an almost blinding light in their eyes.
The third thing girls do is go for fashion. Fashion changes almost daily. It changes so inconstantly that girls are often found out buying the newest fashion. In fact Oscar Wilde noted this and said, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." See, those clothes you buy, that are so ‘fashionable’, will probably be out of ‘fashion’ in a very little amount of time. I prefer to find my own style. The clothes that I wear are simply me, and though they may seem to be out of fashion, so be it, it’s my statement to the world that I’m going to be me, no matter what the cost.
Natural beauty, true beauty, the real you beauty, isn’t skin deep it extends to your personality and the way you feel. The attacks on girls are not relevant unless you make them so. Be yourself, be you, and your beauty will shine through.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/living/s_722835.html
http://lds.org/ensign/2010/05/remember-who-you-are?lang=eng
This is my comma essay for Honors English , but I though it would be good to put it on here too.
I feel sorry for you girls. You're CONSTANTLY under attack. As I see it, guy aren't really pressured as much. (Or maybe I just don't care what some celebrity tells me.)
ReplyDelete(Since you were were one the subject of girls, I'll keep it that way for now, just as a note before hand.)
I think one thing some girls need are some encouragement and appreciation from their peers. If a girl knows that another girl isn't going to laugh at her for not looking someway, she won't care so much. If she knows a guy thinks she's beautiful the way she is, she's not going to stress as much. For example listen to "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. He pointing out all the things that's beautiful about her, yet he knows that she doesn't think the same. He sees it as something so obvious, she shouldn't even need to ask him. He sees this girl as she is, "beautiful, just the way she is."
Also, I think it's 100% true what Sister Dalton said. True beauty isn't what your body looks like, it's what your soul looks like. It's what you do that makes you beautiful, not what you wear. Besides, who's gonna be the better wife, the hot chick, or the woman that is filled with the Spirit of God? (Should I even have to ask that?) The girl that I'm going to aim for is going want to be involved with the gospel and with children. In addition, I hope this girl will make me want to be a better person and likewise for her.
So to all you girls out there, be who you are and be proud of it. Stay strong, and don't loose sight of who you are. You will be greatly admired for this in the future.