What does your real beauty look like?

*Disclaimer this might be the most political I have ever gotten on a subject here in my happy place. 

I struggle with confidence on a daily basis. It is either my hair getting flatter, my pants getting tighter, my cheeks getting fuller, my artistic work just being lost in the masses and not special enough to stand out....blah, blah, blah. Seriously. 

Every. Single. Day.

I am not saying this as a pity party or an invitation for compliments. It isn't about that. It isn't that I don't get complimented. I don't think that is the issue for most of us. It isn't that my husband doesn't tell me I'm beautiful, because he does probably every day. It is just some warped thing in my head that is probably in your head at least part of the time too. 

Am I right? 

That is why this video struck such a chord with me when a friend shared it on Facebook. I am not usually one to share things like this, but it is something I feel everyone, especially women, can relate to in some way. 

Just like everything out there, there are critics [here and here for example] and those that mock this idea or say it was the fault of the "useless" sketch artist. Okay, so maybe most of the women were Caucasian. Honestly I didn't notice because race is not the first thing I notice about a person. Maybe because it doesn't matter? And okay, so maybe most of the things they didn't like about themselves involved weight, and maybe they emphasized "thin as beauty" encouraging the same ideas as our current culture...more blah, blah. So maybe that is true, but isn't that the real issues that real women struggle with? I know I am not an obese cow, but I do feel fat most days [just ask the mister]. I am not saying whose fault it is or that anyone should tell me I'm not, but I do feel like it is silly to criticize this ad for focusing on weight because you have struggled with your own body image. That is the whole point! Everyone does! But I digress...

It isn't the final drawings that impacted me the most in this video. It was the words the ladies used to describe themselves and mostly the way those words obviously made them feel. I know the words that I would have used to describe myself would not have resulted in anything I would want to see. 

What would your words be? 

Yeah, sure Dove is a company, and yeah this is just a marketing tool. But for me this didn't make me want to go out and buy Dove soap. It just made me realize a few truths about myself. A few truths that needed recognizing. I am actually going to try to take this one with me and remember these things when I am criticizing myself. I am going to try a little harder to look at myself as others see me. And maybe, just maybe, the next time my husband tells me I am beautiful...I just might believe him. 

xoxo,

Katie