What Is Beauty?

A few months ago, I attended a “What is Beauty?” workshop back in the fall at The Lower East Side Girls Club and the empowering advice still has engraved such a huge significance in my mind today.

Although this workshop was a little while ago, I think learning and sharing the true definition of beauty is never too old.

Led by Alexis, beauty blogger of the Beauty Bean, Michael Angleo of hair salon Wonderland, and fitness and health trainer, Carlos, these three amazing beauty and healthy-living gurus helped members and their friends of the LESGC in discovering inner beauty from the inside and out.

Scribbling on a questionnaire sheet on what is beauty, we went around, shared and talked about what beauty meant to us and what’s beautiful about ourselves.

Living in a media-influenced world where gleaming smiles, good skin, and shiny, bombshell hair grazes magazine covers, billboards, and on-screen, it didn’t surprise me that for a minute I had a flash of these beautiful creatures in my mind.

It’s almost hypnotizing.

Iactually had to stop and think, what do I love about myself?

I mean sure, we all think at times, hey, I look nice today. But when someone presents you the question of, what do you think is most beautiful about yourself? It’s not really a question you’d give a quick answer as if the answer was always on the back of your mind.

Eventually I came up with:

My ambition

My open-mindedness and willingness to help others

and my smile.

I was focusing more on my personal qualities because, honestly, it was easier to think about than my physical traits. I knew and was assured during the workshop that, “true beauty shines from the inside, out” as we are known to hear.

It felt like such an amazing, positive energy that, the girls and guys at the workshop listed such a great number of physical qualities.

I know it sounds so cliché, but the most beautiful person to the naked eye can be the most ugliest person standing in a room.

It reminds me of “Mean Girls” and all those cliquey movies (“The Clique”) with the beautiful, popular girls, or better known as the “Plastics”, who seem it have it all. But really, they have nothing at all. Because no one wants to be with a nasty, selfish, bitchy person who only worries about themselves and themselves only. When we think of the word “role model” most of us would think of a strong, intelligent person who has a good head on their shoulders.

True beauty is someone who has the ability to love.

Someone who cares about the good-being of others without looking for a benefit for themselves at the end.

True beauty is embracing your unruly, curly hair, your curvy thighs, and cup size.

Your towering height and the gap between your teeth.

As a 5 ft and 1/2, petite, 16 year old teenager, growing as I speak (I hope) with so much to learn, I’ve learned to accept that (here comes the cliché again) no one’s perfect. We can strive for perfection but will always struggle on our journey there because, in my opinion, perfection doesn’t exist. Sure we can try our hardest in life and at everything we do, but that’s just what it is. Our best.

And once we learn to discover to accept ourselves and congratulate our accomplishes, is when we will learn the real definition of beauty.

So stop reading the number on your jeans and smile your biggest smile, with or without braces. Let your hair down and wear what makes you happy because at the end of the day, all the hours you try of concealing and changing who you are, ask yourself if you’re changing because of those who are looking.