Who Dictates beauty?

I'm 5'2 and am a Size 8 going down to a size 6. When I check my BMI, I'm classified as 'underweight', so why do I feel fat and ugly whenever I look in the mirror? Every time we look in a fashion magazine, all we see are stick thin models with flawless skin, and they look like they can't even smile. This is true and has been true since fashion began. Beauty has always been connected with the thin, tall girls, with the perfect breasts and body. This is despite the 'size 0' debate and the fact that many really skinny models have been supposedly banned from the catwalks. When was the last time we saw a less than perfect model, or celebrity for that matter. The fashion industry puts a lot of pressure on its models to look perfect, which puts a lot of pressure on us to look perfect. Look at the pictures of the models below. They're thin, but far from beautiful. Scary to be more exact. Ask a lot of guys and 9 times out of 10, they'll say that they want at least something to hold on to.

The media gives you all these perfect images to live up to, but the honest truth, even those girls don't look like that. the amount of editing that takes place is remarkabe: they airbrush skin and make the models look taller and more slender.

But perfection does not exist. It can't exist. We all have our little flaws and we should love them, instead of hating them. I, for example, am short and have small breasts. This makes me feel like less of a woman and more like a little girl. Especially when slightly taller friends have to bend down to hug me. But what about the advantages of this: I can wear heels without looking too tall. But instead of focusing on the plus side, I nit pick at these flaws and tear myself down because of them. And its not just me. Everyone has little flaws that we hate ourselves for. And the funny part: no one else can even see these flaws in us. We shouldn't hate ourselves for what we really are. We should embrace it and show confidence in ourselves. The constant obsession to always look amazing and super thin makes us lose confidence in ourselves and makes us more self conscious. And this shows. When we walk with confidence, we do look better. Walk out with your head high and felling comfortable in the clothes we're in makes us look and feel much better.

We believe that to be beautiful, we need perfectly put together hair, a ton of make up everytime we go out and that we need to be wearing the top brands. Really? What difference does it make? Does wearing a ton of make up really make us more attractive? A lot of times we can over do it and look like clowns. I have a friend who takes hours putting on her make up: a ton of blusher on her cheeks, and really heavy eye make up, as well has having her hair dead straight. The worrying thing is that I'm one of the only people whose seen her look natural, and she is gorgeous when she's not piling it up. After I told her to just go out looking normal, she turned to me with a horrified face and said that she would never leave the house without make up. She, like the majority of other women, are insecure about how they look. Any why? Its because we see all those models and celebrities with flawless skin, that we want it to. And the only way we can have it is by make up. Most women are beautiful and if they feel this about themselves, it really does reflect when we go out. Whenever I feel good about myself, I always tend to look better. I'll walk out with a feeling of confidence and (Leia can back me up here) will much more openly flirt with guys. It not about what you wear...its how you wear it.

So who dictates beauty? Its not the models, its not celebrities. Its us. We're beautiful when we smile, we're beautiful when we look natural and we're beautiful in whatever we wear. Don't compare yourselves to your friends...I can guarantee you that they are comparing themselves to you. We need to stop worrying about what everyone thinks and we be ourselves.