The "Perfect" Woman

Whenever I watch a movie or TV show, I notice that most female characters look the same: perfect. They have beautiful clothes and perfect hair, and if they wear makeup (which they usually do), it is flawless. It’s okay for girls to want to look their best, but, in my experience, the expectations for beauty we find in the media can be incredibly unrealistic.

In the movies, women always wear amazing, fashionable, wrinkle-free clothing. You never see pieces of their hair or animal hair on their clothes, either! Can I just say that I would love to wake up and be able to magically have the perfect outfit!? I don’t know about you, but for me, getting dressed in the morning is a challenge. When I wake up and go to get dressed, usually all the clothes I like are in the laundry, which makes things ten times harder. For some reason, I am unable to tell if my clothes look good together. I am always asking my mom or brother if they match! If I didn’t have them, I’d be a mess. Once I find a good outfit, it usually needs to be ironed. After ironing it, I am good to go....until I realize I have dog fur all over my back, and sometimes even my own hair! Lint rollers are definitely a lifesaver in my house. Right now I am wearing jeans and a black Sin City motorsports shirt, and yes, there is dog fur all over it! That’s just something that I’ve learned to accept. My clothes can’t always look perfect, and that’s okay.

It also bugs me that women in the media always have perfectly tamed hair in a nice updo or style. I get that it’s easier for some people to do their hair nicely. For me, my hair is a fluffy, frizzy mess in the morning, and sometimes it goes back to being a fluffy, frizzy mess at the end of the day. And if I’ve ever been to your house, I’ve probably left strands of my hair somewhere, and I’m sorry. It falls out everywhere and gets in people’s faces...honestly, it has a mind of its own. It also seems like the perfect girl in movies is usually blonde. Most Disney princesses are blonde. But you don’t have to be blonde to be beautiful. I say all this, and here I am with my hair dyed a golden blond color. The media tells us that we have to have perfect, blond hair to be attractive, but that’s not true.

Somehow, people on TV and in the movies always have flawless makeup and skin. In the TV show Reign, one of the characters, Clarissa, has a facial deformity, and everyone is afraid of her and trays to kill her. I’m just saying, if having makeup that’s not on point was punishable by the death, I’d definitely be dead. At this moment, I’m walking around with a super dark color foundation on. If you were all to look, which I suggest you don’t because that would be super embarrassing, you would probably notice that my face and neck are two totally different shades.

Everyone is beautiful in different ways. Major cliche, I know, but it’s true. I challenge you to go look in a mirror right now, and instead of thinking about the things you don’t like, look at the things you love about yourself and think, “I look great!” because you do! Think “I’m beautiful” because you are!

-A