Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

I was laying in bed one morning and as is common with my mind, this topic popped up in my head.  As a society, we struggle with learning to accept ourselves.  We are too busy trying to make ourselves look like the Kim K’s, Beyonce’s, J-Lo’s and other celebrities in the world. We want:

• to be thin like the Victoria Secret models,
• to have flawless pictures like the retouched images of people in magazines
• have hips and a derrière like Nicki Minaj,
• have hair down our backs like we see all the ladies have in media, or perhaps have big curly hair like all of our favorites naturlistas on YouTube
• and have thick full lips like me (I say me because I was born with them haha but  I know many people didn’t start desiring thick lips until Angelina Jolie or Kylie Jenner made it a “trend” even though there are many of us – including myself – who were born with them but that’s a topic for a different day lol).

We get so caught up in trying to be like everyone else that we don’t realize that being ourselves is in fact good enough.  Let me say this to you, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with being authentically you.  So why are you trying so hard to be a prototype – you know a model of something or someone else?  Now let me clarify. It’s okay to aspire these things. It’s okay to wear makeup, rock you some weave, work out to lose weight or squats to lift your derrière.  The issue is when you take off all of those things and you don’t love the person that you see in the mirror.

It is imperative that we learn to love ourselves and celebrate those things that make us unique.  I was attending a leadership series awhile ago at my job where the speaker was Fred Perpall.  At 38 years old, Mr. Perpall is the CEO of The Beck Group, one of the nation’s largest design build companies.  During this speech, Mr. Perpall said, “don’t let your uniqueness be something that you see as a negative”.  Instead, we are to leverage our uniqueness and use it to propel us into greater heights.

So whether you are black or white, have full or thin lips, have long or short hair, have a gap between your teeth or not, have freckles or acne or a mole, have thick or fine hair, have stretch marks or cellulite, have muscles or not….just be authentically you!  God didn’t create any two people on this Earth to be the same.  Nope, not even identical twins! Because while twins, triplets and God-bless-you-if-you’ve-had-more-than-that-at one-time, share the same genetic makeup, they are still not 100% the same!  God didn’t feel there needed to be a bunch of prototypes walking around here. Instead, he thought that you – just as you are – are more than enough.

My hope is that you remember that very thing. It is okay to be you.  In fact, celebrate who you are because there is no one else who can see or paint the world as you do.  God created you to be a masterpiece – skillfully and wonderfully made – and we need more masterpieces in this world instead of carbon copies! It is up to you to accept it, love yourself flaws and all and learn to just be your own kind of beautiful!

XO,

~Videllia