According to a study done by the Center of Appearance in 2012, 60% of adults report feeling shameful of the way they look. I did some research and found out that the adult population in the United States is around 242,470,820 (and takes up about 76.7% of the total population); and after doing some math I figured out that 60% of that number is 145,482,492. That large number represents those who feel humiliated in their own skin; To be completely honest, I am have been of those numbers.

Expectation of true beauty vs. Reality

One of my most uncomfortable feelings to share, is that of my own impression of my appearance. Ever since I was a child, a part of me knew I would never look like any of the people on TV. The girls that were on there that were my age, tended to represent what I thought was “true beauty”. The actresses that I compared myself to were (and continue to be) beautiful, but that doesn’t mean I am not either.

In the Webster Dictionary, beauty is defined as the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. It is not defined as the woman on the poster you compare yourself to everyday on your way to work. Or the girl in your 8 am lecture who always seems to get everything right in life. Even though these women are beautiful, they are not you. You are beautiful in your own way. True, real life, beauty comes from somewhere way deeper than the surface of your skin: it comes from your inner being.

In 1 Peter 3:4, it says, “You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God”. Never be ashamed of who you are, because once you express that side of yourself the rest of your appearance begins to join it. Take care of yourself, of course, but don’t let your outside consume how you feel on the inside. You are beautiful, no matter what you have been through or who has told you different.