As a so-called "fashion blogger", I obviously care a lot about the “outside” and whether it be posting what I wear each day, analyzing certain trends or showing off my latest thrift loot. While all this outside material does matter a lot to me, I strive to be a lot more in my own personal life and the life I project when I spill my thoughts out through this blog. Because despite all the materialism, superficiality and outer importance that I may portray through all my pictures, there is a deeper messages I like to send out from time to time whether they be hidden in my DIY posts or blatantly stated out loud.
Today I will blatantly state the message that beauty starts from within. So cliché, but so true. And the same came be applied towards fashion. It all starts from within –heart, mind, and soul. It takes a lot of self-confidence to express ourselves as an individual through fashion. I’ve known people who would say “I would so love to dress up like that if only I were x number of pounds lighter or if I had the figure for it”, and I want to say to all those people out there, just do it! Wear what you want to wear. The chances that your body will change permanently are slim. Sure you can diet and exercise all you want to maintain your ideal figure, but to have those activities constantly on your mind is pure torture. Instead of waiting until you are right to wear what you want, you should dress for yourself now. I am not by any means saying that people shouldn’t exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. What saddens me the most is when I hear girls and women complaining about their bodies or making negative remarks towards themselves on their appearance. Self-negativity is the ultimate harm anyone can do to themselves. It’s like taking a dagger and stabbing yourself. Now why would we want to do that? We are all individuals and look different. Just by changing our attitudes, it truly does make a difference. It is hard to gain that boost of self-esteem. Some people never can make it but if we all start sending a positive message perhaps the next generation of women will all start to feel beautiful both inside and out.
So I’ll start with myself. I am just an ordinary girl who maybe sometimes likes to dress a little unordinary, going through the ups and downs to transitioning from girl to woman. (The word "woman" still sends shocks down my spine; I just want to stay in my child mode as long as I can.) Despite my "whatever" attitude to what people think about me or how I look and I'm not just saying how I dress, there are little snippets of moments when I get self conscious about the way I look, body, face, feet. Sometimes I wish I were skinnier, had slimmer legs and arms. I wish I had a longer neck or if I didn’t have too many freckles. Then of course I wish my feet were smaller so I could fit into cute sample size shoes. I wish for better skin and a hairless arm. I could keep wishing for different things forever. Then one day, I just said forget it. Okay, it wasn’t one day, more like many days. I shouldn’t waste my time worrying about such superficial things. I should get on with my life and do things that make me happy like fashion and art, music and dancing around like a fool.
Perhaps it’s all the messages from the media, from our family, from our friends of what we should look like because that is what is beautiful that has gotten many people to the state that they are in. Certainly, I don't like it, I would suspect that most other women would agree with me but somehow we end up accepting it as fact, as truth and therefore our standards and views of beauty have become terribly distorted. Sure we’ve seen the emergence of “let’s accept all types of bodies” movement, but really, in comparison to all the other messages out there it barely leaves a dent.
However, I have always loved Dove for their consistently wonderful Campaign for Real Beauty. I recently checked out their new Reality Diaries. It is basically a multimedia website of four girls life, much like, what do you know, a diary. Shocker there. It’s a six week following of these girls everyday lives dealing with real life problems. I see a lot of myself in Irene, the Chinese American self-proclaimed “theatre geek” except I’m the self-proclaimed “art geek”. She deals with issues such as being the only Asian in her school and even wished she could change her flat nose. I have a flat nose too and have at times wished had had the perfectly beautifully pointed European nose but now the only reason I would want to change my “equilateral nose” is because my glasses keep slipping off and I must fix it to save myself from looking like a granny. The diaries are not just about self-esteem issues with body image and perhaps that's why I found it so enjoyable to watch.
Sorry for such a long post. If it didn't make sense, it's okay. I'm not offended.
I have a buttload of homework already. Better start sooner or later.
