The idea of being “picture perfect” is something with which I’ve always struggled. Society as a whole, to me at least, feels geared toward attempting to maintain an abstract concept of beauty that, when it comes down to it, simply isn’t real.
Yes, that’s right. It just is not real.
It’s not real because the idea that there is only one form of beauty — the idea that beauty is something that can be standardized — is really just absurd. That’s because everyone is beautiful in their own way. Everyone is born as their own unique and individual person, and they should never feel pressured to look different from the way they are.
I think that beauty coincides with confidence — confidence in who you are. I think that beauty aligns with putting on the clothes that you like, wearing however much makeup you want to and being the smart, kind and amazing person that you are. Beauty isn’t something you should feel like you need to reach for, because you already have it.
That being said, I know it’s hard, and it’s something with which I think I’ll always struggle. In a world full of social media and photos galore, it’s easy for me to get a little down when I don’t look the way I want to look in pictures. It’s easy to fall in the hole of comparisons and self-doubt.
It’s all too easy for me to see today’s beauty standards all over the internet and to look at myself and wonder why I don’t look “picture perfect”. It’s all too easy for me to falsely accuse myself of not adding up to what I think society wants me to be.
It’s all too easy, and that needs to change.
Beauty is something that comes from inside of us, and yes, it comes from our external appearances too. However, externally, we are all beautiful in our own unique, individual ways. That being said, I’m learning to feel comfortable in my own skin all the time, even when I don’t think it’s picture perfect — and that’s just it. Just because you might not think that you look beautiful by today’s standards doesn’t mean that you aren’t. You are beautiful, every day and in every way, and I hope that you know that and love the skin you’re in all the time.
When it comes down to it, if being “picture perfect” can be equated with being beautiful, then aren’t we always picture perfect?