Who defines beauty?

Alessia Cara’s song, Scars to Your Beautiful sheds light on the ever relevant issue of beauty. Beauty is one word that changes with time. This word can have so many different meanings and this word has had more of a negative effect on people than a positive one and I think society is to blame. Living in a world of Instagram models and people being Snapchat famous we can’t help but compare ourselves to others. Let’s be honest, the gorgeous curvy girls advertising Fashion Nova jeans or the skinny girls advertising Pretty Little Thing dresses sometimes makes us question the way we look.

Who defines beauty? Where did this word even originate? What is your definition of beauty?

LaLa Anthony recently produced a show called Killer Curves. On this show, women tell their stories of how they attempted to get plastic surgery to alter themselves but something went terribly wrong. Some of the women have scars for life. One of the known people on the show is K. Michelle whose story of getting implants delineate how society’s perception of beauty affects women. As a singer, K. Michelle thought that having curves would allow her to get the attention she needed to catapult her career and bring her stardom. Then, due to serious issues, she had to get her implants removed. She adjusted to being skinny again and learned to love the skin she was in.

Society’s perception of beauty is raising insecure girls who do not think they’re beautiful. Society continuously contradicts itself by one day saying that we should be a size 0 if we truly want to be beautiful like the Victoria’s Secret Angels. Then, society goes back and makes fun of women for not having curves. If we allow society to get the best of us and be the determining factor in how we define beauty we will never embrace who we are as individuals. We are all different and uniquely beautiful in our own way.

Let’s go back to the Age of Reason and adopt the philosophical interpretation by Scottish philosopher, Francis Hutcheson who described beauty as “unity in variety and variety in unity.” We are all different and that’s what makes us beautiful. Embrace what makes you unique and do not let society control how you view yourself.

If someone cannot accept you the way that you are then they do not deserve you. Every scar, blemish, bruise or discoloration adds to your beauty. Psalms 139:14 reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God has made you the way you are for a reason and He makes no mistakes.

Know that you are beautiful, flaws and all!

Remember, “You should know you’re beautiful just the way you are. You don’t have to change a thing, the world can change its heart.”

So who defines beauty? You do!