I am beautiful. My mother is beautiful. Your mother is beautiful and so are you. Sisters, daughters, Grandmothers, Aunts, Cousins, Widows, Nieces. We are all beautiful. Growing up I was taught that every living thing no matter its comparison to the “norm” is beautiful. I grew up without my mother and took little notice to front page glamour and the latest trends. I would look around at older women and wonder how everyone could be so beautiful. I wondered if my mother was beautiful and if I would grow to become beautiful. I fell into the habit of imagining every person being loved especially women.
It is not socially acceptable to be fat but it is beautiful. It is not socially acceptable to have acne, but it is beautiful. It is not socially acceptable to walk with a limp or in a wheel chair but it is beautiful. I was ugly once, and to some of you I may even be ugly now. I have looked inside myself past outer appearance and gained confidence and respect for my womanhood. Now I am beautiful. Every woman ever born into this world, to me is a direct descendent of Aphrodite herself. The beauty of a woman does not lie in her appearance. It is the distinct characteristics of women that create this undeniable beauty. The womb, birth, natural mothering instinct all things inherent to woman. All things beautiful. It is hard for me to imagine how women and men to day can look at another human being and call them ugly. I do not believe that we hold the power to make such judgment. Women grow up every day in this world being the stigmatic ugly girl. How does that benefit us? How did our ridicule further ourselves? I believe every woman is beautiful. No matter her shape, size, weight, height, skin color, accent, or intelligence. As a young adult now it pains me to still see women on my campus laughed at and ridiculed. Can you imagine having one day when you feel at your best and then being shot down due to an outsider’s opinion that you are ugly? To be a woman in my eyes is to be beautiful, classy, sexy, gorgeous, lovely, magnificent, pleasing, and natural. If you can look into the mirror in the morning and see the strength of woman that is inside you, you are beautiful. A woman is created uniquely and with specific purpose. How anyone could look at a creature that creates all future generations of life and call her ugly is beyond me. To be a human is natural, to be your self is a challenge, but to be a woman is beautiful and it takes no work at all. Women… we are all beautiful. This I believe.