I apologize for how infrequently I’ve posted lately! These past few weeks have been physically and emotionally draining.
Anyways, people are insecure. Girls and women, however, are valued for their appearances much more than men are, and are dealing with an entirely different animal. Women of color struggle a lot with their self esteem because universally and historically, white women have been upheld as the beauty ideal. Black women in particular, because they are as far from white as it gets, are taught that they are inherently ugly and that any beauty they possess is in spite of their blackness. The lighter her skin, the smaller her nose, the looser her curl pattern, the better.
The further I got in my education, the better I understood the low self esteem I struggled with in middle school and high school. I eventually realized that blackness wasn’t an obstacle in achievement of beauty; the two weren’t mutually exclusive. Blackness didn’t need to be concealed or apologized for.
It hasn’t been a journey of sunshine and Lauryn Hill though; I struggled a lot looking in the mirror when my hair was extremely short. As much as I hated that stage, it was liberating. And it was so, so worth it.
I think that regardless of race, women that learn to embrace and understand their own natural beauty are much, much happier.
There was a point where I’d draw on my eyebrows almost every day, and it was atrocious. To this day I question my friends about how they could sleep at night knowing they let me be seen in public like that.
…Look at those monsters. Luckily, I saw the light and just started taking better care of my own eyebrows, and take pride in the fact that my eyebrow game can’t be destroyed with a wet napkin.
I’m not telling women how to live their lives; wear as much makeup and weave as your hearts desire; but know that beauty isn’t something that can be bought or applied. There is radiance in honesty.
what do you think?