America's Beauty Guidelines

Today, in the United States of America, the public is exposed to the "perfect look". Society defines this look as white skin, straight hair, thin torso, long limbs, and a pretty smile.  However, a very small percentage of people meet those "guidelines".  This leaves the rest of the beautiful girls in the world to feel noticed, or under-appreciated for their beauty. This topic is something that I am particularly very interested in because I work in the modeling industry. The modeling and pageant community is exposed to a platform that is exposed to unrealistic body and face expectations.

Social media plays an enormous role in society's unrealistic beauty values. Marketing and advertisements show radiant, glowing, beautiful women who suggest they are going "natural" and "fresh face" yet behind the scenes, they are plastered with makeup and being photoshopped to fit the beauty "frame." In modeling portfolios and new face portfolios as well as headshots for pageant girls must be perfect. You cant have a scratch on your face, a slight undereye bag, or a loose flyaway. that just goes to show that the beauty platform and its guidelines are incredibly unrealistic and horrifying.

At the beginning of the pageant/ modeling days, the "look" was blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin. I had looked into the old headshots and polaroids of models back in the 1900s and everyone is blonde and thin. Today, I feel disappointed, yet hopeful for the beauty standards of the United States. I am hopeful because the industry is working to expand to a more diverse set of looks. There are new faces that are absolutely gorgeous. Clients and marketing teams have also expanded to look for an all-inclusive message.

Although we are on a rebound from what used to be, I believe that this issue can resign with every girl in the world today. Girls grow up to believe that they must look a certain way to be considered "beautiful". That being said, is there really a way to change what the world defines as attractive. Young girls should believe they are beautiful in their own way.