A personal mantra of mine has always been that confidence is your number one accessory.
Without it, it really doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. It never fails.
My roommate recently did a photography project that parallels how society expects us to look and real, natural beauty and confidence.
When she asked me to be the subject of her project, I agreed without hesitation.
And while, yes, I can’t deny that it was in part because I love dressing up and doing photo shoots, it was mostly because of the message she planned to send.
Airbrushing and touch-ups are still extremely prevalent in the fashion and magazine industry, and I think in moderation that’s okay.
However, many advertisers, companies and celebrities have started to make a shift in their campaigns, promoting several body types and natural beauty. I can’t think of anything more refreshing.
The clothing website ModCloth won some recognition this year as the first company to sign the Heroes Pledge for Advertisers, a petition that claims “to do their best not to change the shape, size, proportion, color and/or remove/enhance the physical features, of the people in their ads ?post-production.”
When you visit ModCloth’s website, it is also very clear that they work to include women of every size as models, something I believe more companies should aim for.
Female musical artists have incorporated the ideas of the pressure to be perfect and self-acceptance in some of this year’s most popular music.
Colbie Caillat released a music video this summer for her song “Try,” challenging fans to submit photos of themselves with no make-up on. The Grammy award-winning star participated in the challenge as well.
The queen herself, Beyoncé, made quite the statement with the drop of her self-titled album last winter. “Pretty Hurts,” one of the album’s most popular tracks, tackled the issue of the media putting too much pressure on women to look and act a certain way, claiming that “perfection is the ?disease of a nation.”
Organizations on campus are contributing to the movement as well.
The Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority participated in the Naked Face Project last week, pledging to go a week with absolutely no make-up.
Meghan Burke, a senior member, said of the ?campaign, “It just goes to show that women are beautiful without make-up and they don’t need it. As a chapter it shows that we’re confident enough to put ourselves out there without it.”
Everybody has something that’s a little quirky or different about them, and instead of trying to conform and be like every image they see, why not use those differences to their advantage?
Call me cheesy, but more often than not, those are the things that make someone the most beautiful.
One of history’s most iconic, classy women, Audrey Hepburn, once said, “Happy girls are the prettiest girls.”
I’m right there with you, Audrey.
lsaxe@indiana.edu
