Beautiful is a strong word.
For most women, it’s nearly impossible to say about themselves. Dove, in a recent campaign called Real Beauty Sketches, found that just four percent of us would call ourselves beautiful. Most enlightening is the study where they invited women to describe themselves to a forensic artist, and then had someone this woman just met also describe her to the forensic artist. I’d like to say the results are shocking, but they’re not. They validate how we are often our own worst critic, and how most see us in such better light. They see our beauty; just like you see the beauty of a friend or loved one, even people you just met don’t hone in on the microscopic little lines or dark circles (guilty over here!) that we do, and assume others do.
Watch the video, and check out the sketch comparisons; woah. It really makes me wonder how I would describe myself. Right? You too? As the study shares, beauty is so much more than our looks, it’s ultimately how we perceive ourselves, our confidence, and then how we subsequently apply for jobs, connect with new people, assert ourselves, everything.
I’m not suggesting you have to shout today from the rooftops, “I’m Beautiful,” but I guess it couldn’t hurt any of us to work toward a place where we can at least admit it in solitude! Just reading this at your computer, can you whisper to yourself, “damn, I’m kind of hot” or “I’m beautiful.” 
Ha, think we all should! Let’s stop playing “mean girls” on ourselves, where we pick ourselves apart just so everyone around us feels better. Reminds me of an old vent sesh called “truth: challenges with compliments,” about when someone gives you a compliment you say “Thank you,” not, I feel so fat today or some other degrading comment that doesn’t make you, or the person giving you the compliment, feel so hot.
You are more beautiful than you think.
{love this}
Video via Dove.
