You may be familiar with the "100 Years of Beauty" series. "100 Years of Halloween Costumes" was popular in October, and "100 Years of Wedding Dresses" and "Lingerie" have also popped up across the Internet, shared heavily amongst Facebook and Twitter alike. Each video shares a common time span of the 1910's-2010's, and typically feature gorgeous, white models displaying popular looks and trends throughout the decades of American history. The "100 Years" of beauty and fashion for both men and women have become viral staples on Youtube and Facebook.

Aware of their popularity, the people behind the videos have begun to branch out through their 100 Years of Beauty, first with an "America Part II" episode, in which they feature an African-American female model donning the popular looks of the period as they would have appeared in the African American community. Jumping off of that, their series has expanded to include "100 Years of Beauty" for Iran, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, India, Russia, Italy, Germany, Brazil, and Ethiopia, along with side by side comparison videos for men and women. Outside of the official channel (WatchCut Video), independent Youtube channels have begun creating similar videos for Poland, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, and many others.

What can we, a western audience, gather from this collection of DIY makeover videos? Honestly, many things.

First of all comes to mind the theme during the 40's. Across all cultures, all videos seem to acknowledge the case of World War II. Countries such as Germany, Russia, England, and Korea do not shy away from the militaristic imagery that penetrated day to day life within their respective nations. Almost all the women don a gun or military uniform hat to show such day-to-day participation in the war efforts. Even the USA is "guilty" of such imagery. Even so, a more complex image is projected amongst several images.

Starting in the 1950's, following WWII, both the German and Korean videos literally split in half, to portray the contrasting views of beauty found in western Germany vs. the GDR, and South Korea vs. North Korea. Of course, the main difference in these is that during the 1990's, the GDR and West Germany reunite to form a similar version, whereas the South Korean vs. North Korean ideals for beauty remain separate, bringing a dose of reality to the videos that you don't find in your typical make-up tutorial. This isn't really and aspect we focus on in current American history, but it is something we cannot ignore with the splitting of these two cultures, parallel to each other. The videos ground us in the very circumstances of our world, and there's something to be said for seeing a human being's face project those circumstances.

Overall, a few notes can be made to generally link all of the counties. In the 1920's, almost all countries seem to incorporate the image of "the flapper." In the 1970's, women's looks drastically change in contrast to the prim and proper 50's and 60's. During the 1980's, almost all countries seem to foster an image that we in the west are able to identify with: big hair, heavy eye makeup, heavily defined lips. When you get to the 2010's, it becomes almost indistinguishable to identify one country from another.

What the "100 Years of Beauty" videos seem to attain is a universal identity with one another that ultimately is blind to how we perceive culture. These women are no longer part of "the other" -- they're right in front of us. They look like us. They are us. We make other countries, often very different or unfamiliar to our own, very relatable. These are the stages that we, as a singular culture, went through. This is how we, during the 20th century, adapted as a single, global community. This is how we all changed. If anything, the 100 Years of Beauty videos do not seek to make individuals of us all, but seek to unite us through our cultural individualities by common, universal identifiers. Do not overlook these videos. They are important, and they have many things to teach us as a modern culture, a modern nation, and a modern contributor to how women across the globe define and present themselves. We no longer appear as strangers. We appear as sisters.