Makeup is a woman's most treasured item, they say. Unhealthily, from a young age, girls are taught that makeup is the solution to becoming confident, powerful women. We are constantly told, ad after ad, to cover up because there is something wrong with us. We are taught to empower ourselves through physical beautification.

Starting up the #NoMakeup campaign, recently, Alicia Keys made a vow to go makeup-free. The world wanted to see her for who she was not and she's not having that anymore. The singer claimed that she was sick of the pressure to look perfect. Being uncomfortable with the idea at first, Keys kept the "raw and real" feel from the album alive in her no makeup photo shoot.

She wrote an essay for the Lenny newsletter where she talked about the pressures women face to look a certain way.

"Before I started my new album, I wrote a list of all the things that I was sick of. And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect. One of the many things I was tired of was the constant judgment of women. The constant stereotyping through every medium that makes us feel like being a normal size is not normal, and heaven forbid if you're plus-size. Or the constant message that being sexy means being naked.

All of it is so frustrating and so freakin' impossible," Keys wrote.

Keys' experiences allowed for her to uncover her hidden treasures teaching her the important lesson of being confident in her natural skin.

"I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt," Keys wrote.

Too many times, women are told to cover up and become the mainstream definition of beautiful. Along with it, we don't realize that we are also being told to cover our minds, thoughts, and values. With immense pressure from mass media, our only worth becomes our beauty. This is where we get dehumanized and objectified. We lose our worth, we lose our humanity, we lose power and liberation.

Coming from the heart of beauty icons, Keys understands that as long as she continues to cover herself with makeup, she will continue to cover herself for who she truly is.

"I hope to God it's a revolution," she wrote. "'Cause I don't want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing."

Man has a tendency to be generally ungrateful and unhappy with what he/she already has. We are unable to see the treasures we own despite them being in front of our eyes.

We don't think to realize that maybe our natural selves with our natural skin tones, and blemishes and brow shapes are our makeup. The way we were made, was the only needed and best makeup we've could've ever gotten.

We don't need anyone telling us how to look and we can't let them tell us how to look. Imagine a world where there were no commercials, no magazines, no TV shows, no celebrities. Would women be as crazy as they are about makeup? Would we go out of our way to contour entire bodies to look what we're told is beautiful? I don't think we would because we'd be free to pursue ourselves rather than a nonexistent utopian figure created by advertisers who make the call that makeup empowers us as women. They create a false narrative of women and unfortunately we are falling for it. The picture they paint is truly that of a dystopia where our values are deprived of.

If anything that should empower us, should certainly not be found on aisle racks. A woman's worth and beauty do not derive from the amount of money she pays for foundation, or from the length of her eyelashes or from the size of her lips.

If I don't wear makeup, I'm not free just yet. I'm not free until we're all free. You are the only one who has your face, your freckles, your hair, your size and if you don't own your treasures, who will?