“Oh well, Karma’s a bitch.”
These appearance challenges are known everywhere. It starts off with an individual looking grungy or ugly and then they cover the camera and then boom! They are caked with makeup, hair professionally curled, and lashes glued. Let’s examine the first challenge that had made its debut on the internet. I’m pretty sure we can all say we remember the Don’t Judge Me challenge.
It would start off with someone who had colored their skin with fake acne marks, colored their teeth to show gaps, and would make sure their hair was as greasy as possible. In the background, the song “Cheerleader” by OMI played and just as the chorus hits, they would cover the camera and release to show a huge transformation.
I never really liked this challenge. It made it seem as if having a bit of acne or having a gap tooth automatically makes you ugly. Sure, this challenge was made to project body positivity, but I don’t think it went the way they had envisioned it.
A new challenge has risen and is slowly peaking internet fame. It is made to kind of model as a revamping of the Don’t Judge Me challenge. This challenge is called Karma’s A Bitch. It would start a girl who isn’t wearing makeup or looking a bit on the unkempt side and then cover the camera and release it as soon as the chorus drops. Sounds familiar.
The difference with this challenge is that the transformations are extreme. It seems that they went all out to show how attractive they could make themselves look. This challenge has spawned in more Asian cultures and has become popular in America.
As individuals who live in an already incredibly judgmental world, it is important to embrace ourselves more. We need to learn how to embrace our natural appearances, no matter if we have acne, gaps, split ends, or dark circles under our eyes or not. Many will argue with me and claim that it is a way to love ourselves, but these challenges aren’t meant to do anything except give a few individuals 15 minutes of fame.
I have witnessed many people I knew who tried to complete both challenges and only ended up getting angry and anxious because their “after” look was nothing like the girls on the videos. In the end, these challenges ended up damaging a bit of their self-esteem. I’m sure that my friends are not the only ones.
I personally cannot say that these challenges should stop, because they honestly won’t. We will get a stupid new challenge in the next month or so. Once again, I completely understand how the message that is being sent across is to not judge a book by its cover, but I do not understand why in order for many to become “ugly” is to pencil on fake pimples and to fill in their eyebrows in order to color in a uni-brow.
The message should be to have a beautiful personality and to embrace who you are, not fake being "ugly" for the camera.
