Who Are You....?

In the media today, I see so many images of what is considered “beautiful”. Well actually if you think about it there are two versions of what “beautiful” looks like. There is the stereotypical All-American beautiful versus African-American beautiful. The All-American beautiful is long, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a close to a stick figure with a little bit of curves type body. Then, there is the African-American beautiful, which is what you see on television and magazines like KING or VIBE. This type of beauty is the total opposite with the curvaceous figure, long hair (weave or natural), with a preferred complexion of light skin like Mariah Carey. As I am giving you all these stereotypical beautiful looks, I wonder….What is beauty to me?

Beauty to me is having the ultimate confidence in yourself that shines through when you walk down the street. Beauty is having the type of personality that want people to walk towards you and get to know you as a person, rather than walking away. Beauty is having the state of mind that you are beautiful, instead of putting on all types of pretentious acts to be something that you are not. Intelligence is also what makes your beauty shine through as a person.

Recently I had a seminar at the summer program that I attend. A woman came to talk to us from the Miss America Foundation and she seemed to have, for a lack of better words, a “fake” definition of beauty. Based on everything that she was telling us, she basically believes you should be uncomfortable and not yourself in order to show that you are beautiful. She thinks that you have to be made up and wear heels 24/7 in order to show your beauty. In my opinion that is not beauty, that is putting on a persona to the public that you are quite shallow. But then again, I could not judge her because that is the type of business that she works in. She has trained herself into believing that being something that you are not is what she is and has become.

Every year I have discovered a part of me that is beautiful and find more meanings to the word beauty. But there are some females I see in my community today who demean themselves in order to fit the mold of stereotypical beauty. I’m not sure how it is in other areas but in the Washington Metropolitan Area, a lot of the girls choose to dress like what they see in the music videos. There is the excessive weave, “street walker” type clothing and shoes, fake nails PLUS excessive loud make-up for the finishing touch. When you see this type of girl walking down the street you might think the word that rhymes with lawsuit and begins with the letter “P”. But, you’re actually looking at an everyday girl who chooses to look this way, just because that is what’s considered sexy or beautiful. But are you being yourself? That is the question.

It seems like, as African-American women, we have lost ourselves. We have lost who we really are, meaning we have lost touch with our natural beauty and embracing it. We would rather look like what others consider beautiful or sexy, than to be comfortable in our natural beauty. So as women we should ask ourselves the question: If I were to take off this heavy exterior, would I know who I am and am I comfortable with my natural beauty? I have answered an absolute yes to this question, I hope you have too...