True beauty, the kind that strikes you and the kind that changes your perspective, is from within oneself: true beauty is confidence and positive self-image. The movie "I Feel Pretty" starring Amy Schumer is one that I can stand behind and support; the message, the basis of the movie, is one of finding self-confidence and personal love. Schumer's character, Renee Bennett, is a woman who views herself not necessarily as ugly, but one that she believes is not beautiful. Renee struggles with her self-image and her insecurities, the things which distract her from her true worth.
These negative beliefs of herself prove to be harmful to her friendships and career; it is not until Renee suffers a gruesome head injury and looks at herself in the mirror where she believes she has become beautiful. The movie continues with Renee emitting a new confidence and a positive outlook as she believes that she has transformed into a skinny bombshell, or modelesque individual, due to the accident. The catch, Renee's appearance has actually not changed at all, simply her attitude. The movie creates comedic scenes to express Renee's belief in her new "transformation", but what should not be lost among the jokes and ridiculous events with ensuing, is the message it creates: true beauty is within oneself, it overcomes insecurities, and emanates itself through confidence and positive self-image.
In a world where apps can change the size of our legs, can smooth the stretch marks covering our skin, and remove blemishes and scars, the image and idea of beauty have become incredibly skewed. Children nowadays look at the images of Instagram models, individuals who have even come out and said that they alter their photos, as idols of beauty. These images which indirectly force people to look at themselves, and pick apart their appearance, leads to a poor self-image and low self-confidence. Insecurities are harmful and self-inflicted.
They push people away without intent and isolates oneself without reason. Acne, weight, and negative self-image are only a few catalysts of insecurity; they are insignificant aspects of ourselves which blind us from our true beauty and worth. Beauty is not determined by the total on the scale or the size of your pants; it is not measured by the number of likes received on a photograph or the number of followers on one's social media. True, undeniable beauty is within oneself; it is self-love and the embrace of one's specialty and uniqueness. Negativity truly affects self-image; if you look at yourself every day and think to yourself that you are ugly, that mindset will not change until your thoughts change. What you say and how you speak to yourself matters.
"I Feel Pretty" is a movie which shows different perspectives of self-image and expresses several positive messages. It shows that all people have insecurities and imperfections, in the sense that no one is perfect. It shows that wealthy, capitalistic individuals, like the character Avery LeClaire, the CEO of LeClaire Cosmetics, who appears to have everything she could desire, fears the disapproval of her grandmother. This movie shows that skinny, conceptually "flawless" looking individuals, like the character played by model Emily Ratajkowski are not as perfect as they appear, as her character has insecurities triggered by the description of herself as 'dumb'. Though some of these examples are done through stereotypes and over exaggerations it must be understood that this is still a film, not real life, the representations may be exaggerated and the appearances embellished; however, the message is still there. Confidence is beautiful and self-love is crucial.
Amy Schumer's love interest responded and fell for her confidence, for her personality which emanated that she knew who she was, not her appearance. The movie showed the dangers of insecurity and the effect is can have on the individuals around oneself; Renee's friends commenting that they loved her for who she was, her hilarious character and her kind heart. It expresses that genuine friends, and true people, will appreciate you for who you are and not how you look. Appearance is not everything and more people should understand this concept.
Though this movie brings up an important message of learning to love oneself, I know that overcoming insecurities and finding comfort in oneself is not always easy, especially with all of the skewed images of "beauty" floating around on the internet. My piece of advice to those looking to love themselves and trying to find their confidence, but struggling to: fake it 'till you make it. I know that the word "faking it" may seem strange, but I prefer to think of it more as making it, confidence, into a habit. Try to act confidently every day, work on yourself continuously, and tell yourself that you are beautiful and that you matter, every single day until you truly believe yourself. A habit is made in 29 days.
Make confidence your new habit, because the truly saddest thing in my eyes is underappreciated beauty. Everyone has beauty in them and is beautiful. To me, beauty is kindness and generosity. Beauty is confidence in oneself. Beauty is being undeniably who you are. Do not wait until your insecurities push people away or isolate yourself, begin now, love yourself now. It is not easy to accept the things or aspects of oneself that you don't necessarily love right away; it takes time and growth to love yourself and to admit to yourself that you are beautiful. For myself, I use to think that my nose was too big and that my acne made me ugly, but that is simply not true. The first step to loving yourself is to continuously remind yourself that beauty is within; unaffected by opinions and rude remarks of individuals around oneself.
What if everyone understood how beautiful they are, were able to focus on life rather than their insecurities, image the kind of world we could all create. Positivity, confidence, and growth are key to a positive self-image and leads to self-love. Insecurities afflict us all, but it's important to remind ourselves that we are not defined by them, insecurities do not dictate who we are inside. True beauty is within oneself.
"I Feel Pretty" may not be the funniest movie you will ever watch, or the most dramatic or interesting, but it is one with an incredible message: To become an individual who loves themselves and is confident in who they are, is truly beautiful. It is not cocky or arrogant to believe and know that you are beautiful; a positive self-image and confidence in oneself are things that everyone should have; personal growth is something that everyone should strive for whether that growth is physical, mental, or spiritual. True beauty is within all of us, we just have to learn to believe it.
