Love Your Selfie
80% of women agree there is something beautiful in every woman that she does not see in herself. Surprisingly, this statistic is not from the Dove “Selfie” video watched in advisory on February 19th. This is from Dove’s 2004 campaign, but it continues to be relevant today.
10 years ago Dove launched “The Real Truth About Beauty” campaign to understand the relationship girls have accepting their beauty. Since then they have been gathering statistics from all around the world, asking women about social media and the definition of beauty. Recently, there has been a search to find what beauty really means. Girls have joined the conversation to say what true beauty is to them. By plastering selfies of SUA girls in every hallway, we too have contributed to re-defining beauty.
With the click of a button and the instant process of an upload to social media, beauty is constantly re-defined. The perfect definition or image of beauty isn’t what it used to be. Although times are changing via media, girls still feel pressure. 63% of women feel that they are expected to be more beautiful than their mother’s generation. But, the power today to stand up and accept everyone’s individual beauty is right in front of us as shown in the Dove campaign. Despite all these encouraging, uplifting reminders, only 2% of women around the world describe themselves as beautiful.
In efforts to change the way women perceive themselves and promote natural beauty The TODAY Show anchors, Savannah, Matt, Hoda, Natalie, Willie, Kathie Lee, Carson, Al, and Tamron, embraced a week of positive body image. This included no-makeup Monday, as well as opening up about body imperfections, speaking with singer Jordin Sparks, First Lady Michelle Obama, and actress Cameron Diaz. Jordin Sparks took the challenge of going makeup free all week and she recorded a diary of her experiences. Seeing celebrities embrace natural beauty releases a little bit of the pressure to fit that thought of “model mold.” Girls everywhere take personally the inspiration of Jennifer Lawrence and Beyonce, and if superstars can feel comfortable in their own skin then maybe we can too. TODAY challenged viewers to tweet their no-makeup Monday selfies while feeling confident about their appearance. Dove has been working since 2004 on increasing the self-confidence and awareness of beauty in women and by partnering with TODAY continue to change the definition of beauty.
Even though no-makeup Monday is usually every Monday at SUA, joining the conversation about body image and self-confidence is a great reminder that all girls are beautiful. While seeing a selfie of your best friend in the hall of East might make you laugh, seeing a selfie of a girl you’ve never seen before might encourage you to take to social media and share your re-defined definition of beauty.