By instinct, every time we see something that can produce a reflection, we glance to see how we look. The culture we live in today has taught us from a very young age that we are judged not by the qualities we hold within us, but rather by materialistic things, and how we appear on the outside. Instead of looking into a mirror out of vanity, we look into mirrors for approval, out of insecurity. Have you ever talked to a girl who loves what she sees in the mirror when she looks at herself? Our society is so wrapped up in being the best and having the best, we’re constantly comparing ourselves to celebrities and others around us. What we really see in the mirror isn’t who we really are to others. But we are more than what we see through our own eyes in the mirror. With the endless amount of tabloids, magazines, TV shows and celebrities telling us that we need to be perfect, girls are given impossible standards, and are, instead of having positive thoughts, ashamed to look at their reflections in the mirror.
As women, we’re constantly fighting the battle of who wore it better and who looked best. When going out, most women stuff tiny compact mirrors into their purses and, throughout the night, instead of enjoying their time with their friends or loved ones, they are slipping off into a corner to touch up their makeup, or to catch a glimpse of what they look like. We live our lives to impress instead of being normal human beings that are content with how we look. These standards that the media has placed on us have made women from every place on this Earth ashamed to see themselves in the mirror. Ladies, who are we trying to impress? We should be searching for the beautiful things within us instead of the flaws we see in a thin sheet of glass. Are they really even flaws, or are they thoughts that we have been forced to put into our heads based on magazine spreads and pictures of models? We’re forced to keep fixing ourselves to fit this so-called “perfect” image. The definition of perfection is the condition, state or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects. We must start with the question: who is looking in the mirror, and why are we pointing out our flaws instead of seeing our best features? If we don’t even know the person within us past the way we look, then we can’t live our lives to the fullest.
Within the past few years, the brand Dove has gone to extreme measures to try to reach women across the globe, to prove to them that they are of infinite worth and that they are beautiful the way they were created. Camera crews and public speakers traveled from country to country in hopes to develop a campaign called "Dove True Beauty."
“The campaign started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable,” says a Dove spokesperson.
After Dove’s launch of this campaign, spokespeople went around the world to ask people what their personal views on beauty were. Camera crews were there to film each woman’s response, and their answers were edited into documentaries that boomed all over Facebook and other social media sites. Sadly, only 4% of women worldwide believe from their own point of view that they are beautiful. With Dove’s campaign, they performed self-esteem building activities, and held educational conferences to inform women on these startling statistics. They even had women look into mirrors and describe themselves for an artist. The drawing that the artist drew based off the person describing themselves was actually less flattering than the drawing of someone else's description of the same person. And though Dove has done exceptional things to improve how women see themselves, there is far much more to be done.
Society places reflective surfaces all around us so we can always look our best. If we’re constantly trying to impress someone, then obviously he or she isn’t someone we should be hanging around. It is important to look presentable, but there comes a point where using a mirror more out of a habit of insecurity than for a quick glimpse of how we’re going to look for the whole day just becomes too much. The pressure to always have perfect makeup and hair without any blemishes is the standard that our culture has placed in magazines and advertisements. Recently, pop artist Colbie Caillat made a music video that focused on how girls and women living in this day and age don’t see how beautiful they truly are. In her music video, “Try,” it shows her and many other women of all different races starting off with their normal amount of makeup on their faces and, slowly, throughout the video, taking it off to show their true beauty. "Take your makeup off/Let your hair down/Take a breath/Look into the mirror at yourself/Don't you like you?/Cause I like you," Caillat sings. In Caillat’s song, she talks about how we should feel comfortable looking into the mirror. Her song and music video empowers girls all over who have ever felt uncomfortable in their skin.
We should never feel ashamed of who we are based on what we see in the mirror. Instead of looking at the flaws in ourselves, we should, as women, embrace who we are and what we look like. And although we don’t recognize it as much as we should, we are far more beautiful than we think. We are more than what we see through our own eyes in a mirror. As women, we need to stick together and boost each other up with compliments and love, rather than letting our minds tell us that our beauty isn’t up to the standards that are set by today’s culture. Despite the magazines, tabloids, media and celebrities telling us how we should look, we are far more beautiful than anything we will ever see in the mirror. Love yourself for who you are on the inside, and your body will love you right back.
