As one of three girls in the family growing up, there would always be inevitable comparisons among my sisters and I. We would often hear people say: “mas maganda si <insert any of our names here>, kaysa kay <insert any of our names here>“. But I never really paid much attention to those, because Mama said we were ALL beautiful.
Personally, I prefer being smart and kind to being beautiful. Because being beautiful is subjective. People have their own ideas about beauty, ie. a V-shaped face (at least that’s what locals in Singapore seem to like), long lashes, straight, shiny hair. Whatever. People will look at you differently and say you’re pretty or ugly. But being smart, being kind? These are objective. Either you are or you aren’t.
But sometimes, those beauty magazines tell you otherwise. There was a time in my teenage years when I experimented a lot with makeup. I would sit in front of my mom’s dresser, and put on her makeup, just to see if I could look like those models in the magazine. More often than not, I didn’t. haha.
I believe that there are no ugly people in the world. Only people with ugly hearts, you know, those people who radiate negative energy towards others, that sometimes it warps your perception of their beauty. And sometimes, we ourselves think we’re ugly. Who isn’t their own worst critic, right? There are days when I look in the mirror, and seriously think I’m so NOT pretty. And then I snap out of it, brush my hair, powder my face, put on a nice outfit, smile and then voila! I’m beautiful again.
This Dove ad is going viral around the internet these days. And it does put in perspective how we see ourselves. Really touching and an eye-opener for us girls.
