About Beauty and Beautiful Songs About It

One of my all-time favorite song is Unpretty by TLC. I saw it first when I was 11 or 12 in MTV. Even though my English listening skill was very limited back then, I could understand what the girlband was trying to say through the song.

Never insecure until I met you
Now I'm being stupid
I used to be so cute to me
Just a little bit skinny (Unpretty - TLC)

(Unpretty - Glee Cover)

Girls are burdened with expectations for their appearance. Beauty salon, diet program, make-up, fashion, cosmetic surgery are exist to fulfill the so-called girls' need for being pretty. The thing is, why do they feel unpretty? It's because they see people who "speak" about how the girls don't live up to the requirements to be pretty.

The word "speak" is not necessarily mean someone literally come and tell the girls that they are not pretty. It could be a magazine cover showing a woman with an "ideal" body shape. It could be a TV show starring girls with sexy clothes. It could be all ads in your favorite shopping center showing long haired, light-skinned, thin-faced girls. Being exposed to this kind of beauty campaign for years can make even girls who have always been happy with themselves to feel unpretty just because they don't have similar features.

Lequel je choisis?
Pourquoi je choisis?
Qui veut que je choisisse?
Je ne suis pas leur produit (Nouveau Parfum - Boggie) 

What do I choose?
Why do I choose it?
Who wants that I choose?
I'm not their product (translation source)

I'm not against efforts to beautify yourselves. You can go to a beauty salon, you can adopt a diet program, you can apply mascara, you can wear any apparel, and maybe (I say maybe because I actually don't approve of cosmetic surgery if you don't have any real problem with your body) you can even undergo a cosmetic surgery--it's okay as long as you have thought through this and believe that it is your own choice and you do not do it because you're trying to impress anyone, because you want to belong. 

You are you, and you is not a product.

(Nouveau Parfum - Boggie)

But of course it is easier to be said than done. We are surrounded by greedy beauty companies persuading us to buy their products by making us feel unpretty. In our daily life, we might have met some people who exploit beauty stereotypes to put themselves above and implant the rest of us the thought that we should follow them.

Now what can we do to stop them? No, I don't think we can stop them. But we can stop ourselves from feeling unpretty.

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing (Try - Colbie Caillat)

We should encourage each other that first and foremost is we don't have to change a single thing about us. It's okay to have a curvy body, it's okay to have freckled skin, it's okay to have very curly hair, it's okay to be short, it's okay to love wearing loose clothes, it's okay to have round face, and so on. You don't have to try so hard to be what you are not.

(Try - Colbie Caillat)

Sincerely tell girls that they are pretty, even if their features don't match with the beauty stereotypes. Differences are not handicaps. There are all kinds of beauty, not just the one kind currently popular in the society. Even a male friend of mine once told me, "Every type of girl has their own share of boys favoring it."

If only you saw what I can see,
You'd understand why I want you so desperately,
Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,
You don't know, oh, oh,
You don't know you're beautiful, oh, oh,
That's what makes you beautiful (What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction)

And here's the secret of beauty, here's what truly makes you beautiful: happiness. Even if you don't know you're beautiful, when you're happy and smile, you are beautiful.

(What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction)