When I was a little girl, I thought the actresses and singers who filled the magazines and TV screens were the ultimate standard of perfection - the coolest, prettiest, nicest people in the world - and I wanted to be just like them. I remember having sleepovers with my friends in elementary school, and we would dress up in our “fanciest” clothes (sequins, glitter, tulle skirts, and all), apply our glamorous makeup (the bright red and pink creamy kind that functioned as lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush), and walk around the house as if we, too, were famous. At the time, this was harmless; it’s something that virtually every little girl does when she’s little. Little girls love to play dress up and feel pretty and grown-up. When we’re young, we don’t realize that the stars we look up to have lives and personalities outside of being famous; we tend to see them as a different kind of person, and it seems that their only job is to look pretty all the time, just like our Barbie dolls. The problem is that we think they are naturally that beautiful, and one day we will grow up and magically have perfect bodies, perfect makeup, and perfect hair every day of our lives. As little girls, our minds are oblivious to the world of photoshop, editing pictures, makeup artists, and extreme dieting.

The problem with admiring these celebrities is that as we grow older, we tend to subconsciously hold on to our ideas that beauty and popularity are the most important characteristics we can have. Of course, we would probably never actually say those words out loud, but our thoughts and actions tend to reflect that belief.

As a female college student, almost every day I see someone posting a picture on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter of a female celebrity who is deemed “perfect”. They call them beautiful, stunning, ideal, and any other adjective that can relate to beauty. While there’s nothing wrong with the idea of admiring someone else’s beauty, it becomes harmful when we start comparing ourselves and our own beauty to that of the celebrities. We tend to be very good at finding our own flaws and calling ourselves “ugly” while labeling the overly edited pictures we see in magazines “beautiful”. We see their beauty, though it is generated by computers and heavy makeup, to be a standard for us to live up to, which is utterly impossible unless we have a full makeup team and photo editor following us every day of our lives.

I used to get disheartened every time I saw images of celebrities on magazines or on TV, thinking I could never look as perfect as they do. As we got older, playing dress up turned into a real-life daily routine. My friends and I would try new makeup trends, diets, workout routines, hair products and anything we could in order to achieve a celebrity standard of beauty. This was exhausting, expensive, and mentally draining. After a long time of comparing myself to celebrities and trying to get the perfect look, I finally realized how pointless it was. Even the celebrities who we think are gorgeous don’t look the same way in real life as they appear to in magazines. Before every awards show or public appearance they go through hours of professional hair and makeup. Some have extreme diets and workout routines. Every photo of them is digitally re-touched in some way or another. It isn’t feasible, or healthy, for us to compare the way we look to them on a daily basis.

Our “flaws”, or the things that would be edited out in re-touched photos, are the things that make us who we are. Our creases by our eyes are proof of the laughter we’ve shared. Our uneven skin tones reflect the sunny days we’ve spent out with friends when we forgot to apply sunscreen. Our couple extra pounds are proof of the late night pizza deliveries when cramming for a test with our roommates. Our tousled hair shows the car rides we’ve spent with the windows down and music blaring. These are the things that make us, us, and that make us beautiful. I believe a woman looks the most beautiful, stunning and breathtaking when she is going about her daily life, not caring what she looks like, but simply living joyfully. Forget the digital “beauty”; our natural, untouched beauty is so much more rich and real.