Little girls, preteens and adults envy women like Kylie Jenner. In a society where "slim-thick" bods are all the rage, we idolize fashion-icon Kylie's curvy, voluptuous figure. I mean, who wouldn't? She somehow manages to have a small waist, full breasts, wide hips, and cellulite-free legs with clear facial skin to match. However, it doesn't take much research to confirm that Kylie, (and several of her Kardashian sisters,) have had multiple cosmetic surgeries. I am not shaming plastic surgery; a lot of us would not mind having them. But women need to be reminded that these bodies, though beautiful, are rarely natural. The ideal female body image has shifted drastically in the past ten years, and, guess what? It's still unattainable for 99% of us. The amazing thing about human preference is that it is never universal.
You can be slim-thick, thick, slim or skinny. You can invest in lip-fillers and be currently fashionable. You can get tattooed eyebrows and hair extensions but it doesn't matter. Despite your figure, face-shape, height, BMI, or eyebrow game, not everyone will find you beautiful.
Someone once described this phenomenon to me by saying, "You can be the prettiest peach in the world, and there will still be someone who doesn't like peaches." The singularity of human preference is astonishingly brilliant. Think about your closest circle of friends; when it comes to scoping out the attractiveness of potential partners, none of you have identical taste, do you? I have friends who sometimes pick out men from a crowd who I wouldn't take a second glance at and vice versa. There are everyday women I look at think, "wow, she could be a model." At the same time, there are models that thousands of onlookers ogle at who I think, "yeah, she seems like an everyday woman."
You will never be beautiful to everyone, and that's okay. There is always someone prettier and always someone uglier. The person you may not care about could be immensely attracted to you, while the one person whose attention you want to gain simply isn't drawn to you. Before investing time, money and heartache into clothes and cosmetics with the vain hope of being beautiful, let this reminder resonate within you: it's okay to not be.
We all know that true beauty comes from within. This fact is a popular sermon constantly preached to women; I won't bore you again with what you already know. Although value does not come from appearance, we all want to feel beautiful on the outside. Even those of us who are completely comfortable in our skin and couldn't care less about trending styles feel beautiful because we already consider ourselves so. Others have a harder time reconciling with the physical features about themselves they wish they could hide or remove. However, no amount of makeup can make you perfect. Plastic surgeries can alter one's face for the worst over time, and a perfectly trim body will inevitably sag with age. Stretch-marks, unruly eyebrows, hooked noses, chubby cheeks, and stick-legs can never be fully "fixed." There are always faults to find if we allow ourselves to look. The thing to now be grasped as a first step towards contentment is to come to terms with this truth: you will never be perfect and not everyone will find you beautiful.
Just as no two people have the exact same taste in beauty, no two forms or faces are identical. Perfection isn't found when desired features are achieved, because desires shift constantly. A healthy view on one's image is a conscious choice. Many confident people confirm that they found true confidence by pretending to be for long enough until the act became a personality trait. Ladies, you have something beautiful on your fearfully and wonderfully made body to boast of. Perhaps it is your hair color, eye shape, lip color, head shape, pretty hands, or dazzling smile. I challenge you to look in the mirror and choose at least one feature about yourself which you admire. Having confidence in your uniqueness is a first step to feeling confident in your own, wonderful skin. Not everyone will think you're beautiful. Not everyone finds Katy Perry, Kiera Knightley, Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, or Kate Upton attractive. However, each of those women have something beautiful about them because all women do. Tell yourself you are beautiful, and you will start to be okay.
