Dear Beauty Industry,
It’s over. I know this might seem out of the blue, but enough is enough. This has been hard for me to write, because I know we have a history. You’ve been with me since I was four years old, putting on my mom’s blush until my cheeks were fire engine red, telling me I looked like a beautiful princess. You were there when I experimented with Sun-in when I was 11, telling me I looked like a mermaid. You were always there for me growing up, and we had so much fun. But then I started getting older, and suddenly it wasn’t a game anymore. The lighthearted, fun spontaneous times that we had together became more and more serious.
It started with one or two rules that you would give me. My eyebrows shouldn’t get too thick, you said, so when I was 13 I tweezed them to death, hoping it would be enough. It wasn’t. Then it was my legs. You told me I would be so much prettier, so much more put together, if my legs were hairless always, so I bought razors from you and made it part of my routine. But it didn’t stop there.
As time went on there were more and more rules, and you were taking more and more of my time. Rosy cheeks didn’t make me look like a princess, you told me, I looked like a clown. You told me that I needed to buy makeup from you, to trust you, that I would look just like the girls in the magazines, with bright smiles and otherworldly looks. You told me that if I did it just right, if I kept investing in you, I would be one of those happy girls, but I realize now that those girls weren't even real. They were just empty pictures, never speaking, never thinking, never accomplishing anything of importance except to make me feel as if I were not enough.
Then you came after my hair. You told me that it was too big, too frizzy, too curly. You showed me thousands of pictures of beautiful, happy, perfect girls with straight, shiny, flawless hair, and you told me that mine was wrong, but that if I only listened to you, bought your products, and changed, it would be better. You were wrong. For years I cooked my hair with your flat irons, I spent countless hours trying to get it right. I bought all of your products and it still wasn’t perfect.
You haven’t just treated just me this way, you’ve gotten to my friends too. I see how they look at themselves when I bring you up. I see how they waste mornings conforming to your standards. You promise us happiness, but what you’re really guaranteeing is our reliance on you. We used to use your products, but now you are using us.
So for me, this is goodbye. I used to think that I needed you, but I realize now that I don’t. You don’t own me anymore. I’m sick of seeing your phony ads, I know that they’re all fake and photoshopped. I’m sick of you taking my money, I’m sick of your lies, I’m sick of you telling me that only you can make me happy and I’m absolutely sick of feeling like I am not enough without you. You should feel disgusting. You are a multi-billion dollar industry that is based on making girls feel bad about themselves. Well, not me. You and I are done.
Sincerely,
Enough
