Growing up with a makeup artist as a mother, you tend to fall in love with all things cosmetic. I was lucky to have a mom that also cared very much about what she put on her skin and others. She not only applied and sold makeup, but she also shared her knowledge of the dangers of the beauty industry and what awful chemicals they put into most cosmetics. I never understood this really as a kid, but that didn't matter when I was able to start wearing makeup—I got it all free from her anyway.
I can't get enough of my makeup. In high school, waking up a little earlier to make sure it looked nice was important to me. I described it as my “art of the day.” Going out on weekends now, I have the most fun putting on a full face of makeup and it being OK to have that smokey eye we all love so much. Overall it's just art and such an amazing thing to create for yourself.
But my mom really wanted me to know just how harmful being a part of this industry was. Not just physically and watching out for what goes on your skin, but how they emotionally can scar you trying to sell you something that will never make you look like that Photoshopped model.
It's very hard to get through to women just how fake everything is in advertisements and in this industry. Even if you show them the entire process of a beautiful edited image, they still believe they can be that beautiful if they buy certain products. Reality: It is all edited to unrealistic perfection.
The beauty industry does this on purpose so you believe that no matter what you look like, you can be as beautiful as that model whose job is to be beautiful 24/7. They get paid to work out, tan their skin, and everything else that gets them to be perfect, and they still edit them head to toe. Growing up knowing this, I had no problem with self-esteem, looking at these photos and knowing they were unreachable. But seeing my friends point out how much they wanted to be these women was awful. I tried to make them see but I got the same answer, “Oh shut up, Quinn. You are the size of these models, and you don't even have to try.” But that wasn't my point. It wasn't about me, it was about what my beautiful friends were comparing themselves to and how blind they were by perfection in these magazines. I felt hopeless having this self-esteem when everyone around me couldn't even say one thing they liked about themselves.
This is the part of the beauty industry I despise, the part that made every girl around me want to be anything but themselves and that a simple cosmetic was more important than confidence and their authentic beauty.
I wish it was easy for girls to look at a magazine and not compare themselves to the overly perfect models that took millions of dollars and hours to create. What's sad is that these models are truly beautiful with their hair and makeup done in the unedited photos and actually being fit, but it's not enough for the industry. They must be this unreachable creature that every women thinks she can be with their products. It's OK for them to be dishonest because not enough people question it. We accept this unreachable beauty as a goal and don't believe we are beautiful until we are that perfect model.
As someone who is a graphic design major and knows what is possible in Photoshop, please understand every single ad and person you see in them is edited for hours on end. I've watched many videos and seen many transformations of women's bodies go from a size six to a size two easily, to have an already flawless face have no pores, and to see an already beautiful woman be put on this perfect pedestal no one can relate to or see as real. It's crucial this information be talked about to help the future generations to come. If we don't fight it and just buy into it, it makes it OK for them to continue this lie that is fed right to our self-esteem just to make millions. We must know our limits and reject anything else. We must fight for our physical beauty and fully accept our authentic beauty.
