Owning Beautiful

They like to put on the sparkles.

Everywhere.

Sparkles on their fingers, on their toes, in their hair, and on their nose.

And they like wearing pink.  With polka dots.  With plaid on the bottom and some streamers in their hair.

They dress for themselves.  So when they look in the mirror, they see beauty.  No need to consult any others.

It’s an innocent sort of search, this looking for beauty within oneself.  And it’s one we lose way to soon.

When we look for other’s approval.  When we shop for trends.  When we paint our nails and faces the ways the women in the magazines do it.  When we dress to fit in.

Somewhere, somehow, very young, we learn that our beauty doesn’t belong to us.  It’s for others, for the world – to be admired or judged, envied or mocked, scorned or adored.

We look in the mirror and we ask others for opinions.  We get dressed up to go out in public, but we sit at home, hiding and covered in sweats.  We look at what the camera lens tells us it sees, and we recoil in disgust.

We tell our children that beauty comes from within, but how many of us believe that.  At least when it comes to ourselves.

Many of us learn along the way that we can’t live to make other people happy.  We can’t do everything for everyone. We can’t be everything for everyone.  As we age, we slowly begin to take ownership for who we are and what we want.  But when it comes to beauty, most of us never learn how to do that.

But let’s take that back.  Let’s teach our girls and our boys and ourselves that our beauty is our own.  It’s for us.  They can love us or they can hate us, but they can’t define us.

Let’s wear some sparkles and do what makes us feel beautiful and finally and absolutely refuse to believe that our beauty was made for others.

We are ourselves.  Beautiful, strong, individual.  Let’s own it.

Today I’m linking up with the wonderful organization below whose mission it is to help young women claim their beauty.  Check them out.