“I wear makeup for me, and not for anybody else.”

I’ve heard it, you’ve heard it, and you’ve probably said it yourself. Here lies the sassiest line giveable when someone comments on your makeup.

I have news for you. This makeup you wear that is “just for you” is effecting little people, and you should be worried.

I was reading to a group of five first graders at a local elementary school. I sat in a large rocking chair with five little youngsters gazing up at me (never in my life would I think to be in this powerful position).

“Okay guys,” I said, “Today I’ll be reading you a story about the weather!” “What is all of your names?”

*Everyone says their names*

“Okay, very nice names,” I responded. Just as I started reading, a little girl interrupted me,

“Are you wearing makeup?”

She asked, with eyes lit up and a big smile. I could tell that “makeup” seemed to be something she valued, a form of beauty her.

I thought carefully about my response. I didn’t want to say yes and be a bad example, but I also didn’t want to lie and be a bad example, (these kids were pretty sharp).

“Yes,” I said, “unfortunately, I am.”

She seemed to want nothing more than to wear some herself. I hated this.

Why, I thought, did this girl believe that makeup would make her beautiful? This kid was perfect! I found a new perspective that day.

Maybe we need to stop wearing makeup because it is selfish.

You can’t tell a kid not to do something that you do, it’s hypocritical!

I hear it, you hear it, we all say it: “I wear makeup for nobody but myself”

This is a lie. Do you wear makeup at home? In the shower? Do you freshly apply your mascara before you go to bed at night? NO, NO, and NO. No one does that. Why? Because no one is around, and if the world was a place with just you, you would never feel the need to wear anything. I therefore, conclude that makeup is, and always will be, something that you do to please other people in some way.

As a high schooler, I have been given a powerful position. I am the role model to little first graders! Choosing to be mean when I can be kind, choosing to wear certain clothes, or choosing to wear makeup all affect the decisions and desires of younger children. Remember today that what you do may “just be for you”, but it affects other people too. The ability to zoom out and consider how your life affects people you may not even be aware of is a way that our world can grow and change in a positive way because after all, not everything is about you.