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It seems like girls just have it way to hard... We are subjected to the image we see in the mirror "ourselves", Every time we look in the mirror it seems like it's time to critique we pluck, wax, shave, gel, moose, brush, curl, decorate our faces the question is, Do we really have to do all of that? We all know the impact of the media and the hold it puts in our minds; it is no longer acceptable to just be "you". My 16 year old sister wrote a speech for class that I thought was astounding and wanted to share:

Beauty is more than Skin Deep

Good morning my fellow classmates. I would like to speak to you today on a topic that has become very predominant everywhere in our society. In magazines, schools, and even clothing stores. It is something that has taken over the minds of kids and teens everywhere. Beauty. Beauty defined, makes you think of outward looks. Looks that can be manipulated by make-up, plastic surgery, hair color, or a number of things that give a false impression of the true definition of true external beauty. There are many people in this world who are beautiful by their looks, and every individual has a preference as to what makes a person truly outwardly beautiful. For instance, some girls may think Johnny Depp is just the sexiest guy in the world while others may prefer a tall dark and handsome. Some guys may think Nicole Kidman is the sexist women alive, while other my prefer Beyonce.
When you put on make-up, straighten and/or color your hair color, have plastic surgery, are you truly representing physical beauty or a persona of beauty? Outward beauty can be purchased; inward beauty can only be learned. I am beautiful, as you are beautiful, as all of us are beautiful. And yet most of us spend a good portion of our everyday lives looking in the mirror, critiquing ourselves, pointing out problem areas, and generally going “ugh.” But our appearance, this thing we call beauty, where does it come from? Can it be photographed and plastered on a 50-foot billboard or circulated on a million magazine covers?
Consider for a moment that it might be something more personal. Something a little more than skin deep. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard some healthy, attractive individual proclaim that they would do anything just to lose 15 pounds. Hello, we live in America. The land of plenty. The land of opportunity. The land of a $33 billion dollar diet industry. People all over the world are starving and yet here we are spending ridiculous amounts of money so people can tell us not to eat. And then we get into the fad diets. In fact, at any one time, half of all teenage girls in America are dieting.
We must think about what kind of messages we are sending. Professor Theresa Thompson recently did a class project in her communications course at the University of Dayton in which the students studied magazines for girls ages 8 to 18. Beauty, body, and boys. In discussing the body, the magazines did not talk about health and fitness, but rather they spoke of looking good and what one can do to look better. Eating disorders were viewed as a problem, not because of their health risks, but because of their affect on your skin, hair, and nails. One quiz invited readers to discover if they were a brain or a beauty, implying that the two are mutually exclusive. I am reminded of the movie “She’s All That.” In the movie, the most popular guy is school makes a bet with his friends that he can turn any girl in school into a Prom Queen in six weeks. The target? The shy self-conscious girl. The weirdest girl in school. Within a few weeks, the girl was turning heads with her new look. She becomes automatically happy, falls for jerk boy, and he falls for her. So let me get this straight, if you’re a guy, you’re not attractive unless you’re shallow and insensitive, and if you’re a girl, then it doesn’t matter what you’re like inside because all anybody cares about is how you look.
Peoples Magazine’s top 50 most beautiful people of the year, a plus-sized supermodel once said “If we can’t see ourselves as we truly are, we can never present ourselves as we wish to be seen.” How do you wish to be seen?  Plato described beauty as an everlasting loveliness which neither comes nor goes; the beauties of the body are as nothing to the beauties of the soul. It’s not about looking beautiful, it’s about feeling beautiful.

So ladies What's your Flava?

                                                                                            ~ Lady B