Currently, I am in France celebrating my friend’s 23rd birthday, when did we all get so old? It is also Mother’s Day in the UK so a very Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. I hope you have been pampered and adored and that your children continue to show you the same love and appreciation throughout the whole year. Today’s post is different in that I just want to talk about the pressure of looking perfect. Recently I created a few looks to go up on my post and I was bombarded with all the tools at my disposal to change anything I wasn’t happy with. To obtain the unattainable. Namely, looking perfect. A few months ago I watched a video by Wayne Goss (see below) that really opened my eyes as to how sneaky and underhand society can be. Not to forget that I am a beauty blogger, makeup and skincare are all things I love but when you get to the driving force behind the marketing it just makes me feel like an idiot. With each product they push they are reinforcing the idea that you’re not good enough as you are, or maybe you are good enough but hey you could be better. You can watch the video I am talking about below and although Wayne talks about a specific video I realised how heavily everything we see is edited. People’s videos, photos, even their Snapchat stories. Everything has been arranged just so, a filter has been applied, pores have been blurred. To make it clear I don’t have an issue with anyone who does any of these things, my sole concern is the need to do these things. It is our normal and it has been this way forever, all photography in magazines is airbrushed and tampered with and I just wish that this didn’t have such a huge impact on us all.
I have listened to countless YouTubers talk about how they edit their photos, how they make their eyes bluer and their skin smoother. They use lights and great cameras to create amazing videos that are visually pleasing and their talent shines through regardless of editing, but the end result isn’t reality and it is so important that we all realise that. What was once seen in between the pages of glossy magazines is now literally everywhere and I wonder why I feel lacking when I look in the mirror. The cardinal rule of blogging is to not compare yourself to others, well I call bullshit. Who doesn’t compare themselves? Even in positive ways, competition and peers are a good thing in my opinion. They push you to do better and inspire you to improve. I don’t blame society and Facetune solely for the lofty beauty ideals most of us aspire to reach, a lot of it already existed. Those that are more aesthetically pleasing seem to get further in life, seem to be happier in their own skin. I do believe with age comes clarity and I am at an age now where I absolutely do not want to feel this way about myself anymore, but I have no idea what to do about it. I won’t stop watching YouTube videos or unfollow supermodels on Instagram. The change has to come from within.
We’re lucky in the sense that most of us are aware of the behind the scenes part of the blogger and vlogger world, but when I think about the younger children and girls that idolise some of these YouTubers I worry because they don’t. Soon, I feel like we will all have virtual reality filters so we can look our best all the time and then I can stop moaning. I hope this post made sense to you and I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. This isn’t supposed to be a negative post, I just wanted to see if anyone else freaks out about how artificial everything we see is. Take care.
What are your thoughts on unrealistic beauty ideals?