Everyone is beautiful!

No, they aren’t.

Yes, I’m glad it’s recognized that not only size zero, teenage caucasians are beautiful. However, allowing for different body types, ages, and races expands the number of beautiful people from about 1% to 5% of the population. Sure, we could take it a couple of Bigfoot size steps further, and go around stating that everyone is beautiful, but the word quickly becomes meaningless. Objectively speaking, not everyone is. Take me for example, I’m extremely average looking.

And I’m also more or less okay with that, depending on when I last looked through a fashion magazine. Those of you who know me should realize that means I’m always okay with it. Yeah, it would be nice to be attractive, but it would be nice to be a lot of things I’m not (tall, stoic, French…) I think the message to average looking people (at least half of the population) should be - Yeah, you’re not a super-model, but you can’t have everything. You have a lot of wonderful qualities such as…. (list qualities, just don’t pause too long and don’t say anything about a sweet spirit)

Now some caveats:

1. Just because you’re not at the Albert Einstein of beautiful people doesn't mean you’re not on the honor roll. Don’t compare yourself to impossible, or - in the case of airbrushed photos -nonexistent standards. (I know, I could have  just said "just because you're not Heidi Klum" but by the time I realized that, I already had sunk too much cost into this mediocre analogy) 

2. I’m talking purely about objective attractiveness. I completely understand that subjective attractiveness is an entirely different story. I think everyone has experienced objectively so-so person becoming more and more attractive the better you get to know them (or, conversely, an objectively beautiful person becoming less and less attractive the better you get to know them).

3. Babies and toddlers are always beautiful.

3. Even if you’re never going to be a Disney princess, there is still some value in trying. 

A problem I have is when it becomes clear that I’m no good at something – like singing, first impressions, lying, dancing, resisting sugar…it’s a long list – I tend to give up completely. Sometimes, I devalue it for good measure. Sour grapes, and all that. So when I realized that my hair was never going to look like Ariel’s (I was a Little Mermaid fan), I kind of gave up on the whole “being pretty” thing. I have since realized that real hair doesn’t stay up like that.

4. I get that some of you think I’m pretty, but that’s because you’re my mom.

Speaking of my mom, it would be great if someone besides her commented on my blog. It really would.