Yes, there are so many greater issues in the world than what goes on a person's face. Yes, this article seems like it is going to make fun of the skin deep society we live in. However, as the writer, I hate to break it to you.

Makeup is a problem. If you wear it, you find resentment. If you don't wear it, you also find resentment. Both answers are the wrong answers! Wearing makeup is a social issue because of the thought process that goes into enhancing your features, and the ultimate decision if you will or not.

All my life, I have seen the stages of makeup in girls' lives, with each of them having their own experiences with the tools and shades that come along with the territory. The first time I saw someone wearing makeup, I was in 5th grade and a girl came in who had stolen her mother's eyeliner and mascara. She had put it on before school, and she looked like a melting raccoon. Everyone, even me, laughed at her for being curious about the products her mother wore. However, if someone tried on her mother's shoes, that is fine. It's surprisingly the same situation. She was discovering womanhood.

During middle school, girls started wearing a bit more — some just wore some mascara — but some girls wore a lot — foundation, blush, eyeshadow, etc. For an extreme tomboy, I stayed away from that stuff, heavily judging the girls who did. In my young and very naive mind, the girls who wore a lot of product were ... well, I thought they were whores. And my ideas were backed up. They were the ones noticed by guys, they got their first kiss earlier, and for some reason, it just seemed that they were more at ease with their bodies and faces than I was with mine.

Looking back at me, in hindsight, I was jealous. Makeup, like a period or a bra, was a sign of becoming a woman. With makeup, girls learned how to hide the awkward pimples, and make their chubby faces look more put together. They looked older. They looked better. To me, I thought that they were better because they knew these tricks.

I felt like a weirdo for not joining the craze. Besides wearing it at dance recitals, I really did not want to wear it because I was afraid of it. I was called ugly in middle school, because I didn't cover up my imperfections from puberty, and it hurt because...well, that was my real face, you know? I was showing my true skin off to the world, and it was not as gorgeous as the powder covered pores around me.

So here is the big problem with makeup ... Does it truly make you beautiful or is it about the beauty beneath it? What is better? A significant other seeing the real face or seeing the made up one and not truly knowing what was beyond it?

By the time I went to high school, I still wasn't wearing makeup, but because of the new setting and older kids, I had resolved that girls were not lowly for wearing makeup. I chose not to wear makeup because I knew it was not good for my skin. I saw the addiction with the girls who layered it on in middle school, not sure exactly how to apply it and how much was enough. They couldn't go a day without it. They believed that they could not be beautiful without the product.

I still wasn't being acknowledged as pretty, either. Deciding to take care of my skin, I kept enduring the feeling that I was not as good as these addicts.

And surprisingly, I only became an addict when a boy finally showed me interest. I booked it over to CVS and gathered everything I thought could enhance me. For the rest of my senior year, I would wear eyeliner, mascara, and powder every other day, hoping my skin would not start to need it, and this boy would think I was at the level those other girls were.

That boy left. And it wasn't until summer, where my mother bought me an eyeshadow palette, that I truly started to be intrigued by makeup. I tested it out, made myself enhanced but not different...I wanted to be a woman for college. It was fun, and I really did not know why. And it wasn't until I met a boy who wore makeup, and I learned that I can control what I wear, to realize ...

Makeup is okay, and no makeup us okay. I am beautiful either way! Wear what makes you feel good!

This debate truly means nothing because, it is my choice. And I am still beautiful either way.

Really, it's true. Faces are canvases. They are our canvases. We can choose to put a little or a lot of art on it. It's our choice. In college, I wear makeup when I want to, not when I need to...I love seeing what I can do with the colors, what I can make with myself today or tomorrow. I also have days where I am comfortable in my own skin. No one is an addict. No one is ugly. Makeup does not change someone's personality. Beauty is beauty. Start earlier. Start later. Start never.

It is not a statement to wear or not to wear makeup. It's a personal choice. There is no movement either way. You can do what you want with your face, and that does not change the person you are or want to be. You spend money on it. You cover your face it it. It's fun. Or you just decide you like it all natural.

I still believe we can be friends with two different beauty beliefs. Beauty is still beauty, no matter what.