Trends come and go, but as they travel through the waves of time they lead us to a deeper understanding of who we really are. You might have seen the most recent trend where women are getting freckles tattooed on their faces and there has been a mix of reactions have been by those who are naturally freckled. In a way, it traces back to the old idea of acceptance and wanting what you don’t have. This is a great opportunity to peek into the ways in which power and culture define what is considered beautiful and what is considered ugly.

Even with the best and most honest intention, we feed each other so much false wisdom when it comes to self-perception and acceptance. It doesn’t matter if someone tells you that the things that make you different are what make you beautiful because if you don’t believe it within yourself it just won’t resonate. The only time when such a thing could be true is when you are ready to accept it.

As a woman with naturally curly hair, I grew up trying to fight my hair and “tame” it with heat products and straighteners. Why? Because societies idea of beautiful hair was that of the straight kind. Curly hair has been seen as messy and unattractive. One could always argue the opposite, but those who do are usually on the opposite side of the spectrum—women with straight hair typically desire thick curls. It’s the same idea with freckles. So many women have tried to remove/conceal their freckles for ages. Fellow Odyssey writer, Tara Holstein wrote a piece sharing her take on this trend, “At the end of the day, they can wash them off, but I can’t."

Although our imperfections make us who we are, there is a reason certain qualities are seen as ugly whether we realize it or not. It all has to do with perception. I mentioned an example earlier in regard to curly hair and straight hair. The same goes here. Women are tattooing freckles on the face for the fresh and youthful glow freckles provide. On the other hand, natural freckles represent uneven melanin levels that can sometimes be cancerous. Those factors are enough to sway someone to their own opinion, but at the same time, those factors don’t define what is beautiful. We are the ones who declare what is beautiful, ugly, funny, sad, and so on.

There is nothing wrong with sporting temporary tattoo freckles just like there is nothing wrong with straightening your hair once in a while. The area that trends allow us to explore needs are the ways in which we push and declare the idea of beauty on others.