Ageless Beauty (Part 2)
Are we ever too young to want to feel beautiful?
In my last article, I talked about older women still wanting to feel beautiful. Young girls also need that self-assurance to feel beautiful and will go to great lengths to get that feeling. As an example, I’ll tell you about my early experiment with beauty.
When I was twelve years old, my skin began to break out in the pre-teen stage that many girls and boys go through. Then one day I happened upon an article, in one of my Mom’s magazines, about how a mudpack can clear your skin and, of course, the result would be that you would look fabulous.
Well, I can tell you that I believed it and that they lied!
As a scrawny little girl with impossibly straight hair and skin that was not looking wonderful, I decided that a mud pack was exactly what I needed for a complete transformation. I couldn’t wait to get to a place where I could try this miracle.
Then the opportunity came for me to spend some time at a farm where there was a brook I loved to wade in. Since no one was around, I sat on the bank and slathered my face with mud, knowing that instant beauty was just a few minutes away. There was, however, one problem. Horses had been there before I got there. That mask came off in a hurry! To add insult to injury, I broke out in a mysterious rash that I couldn’t explain to anyone.
I think about the young girls who dress in weird (to me) outfits, have outrageously dyed hair in all kinds of strange styles and kind of envy their rebellious freedom to want to be different and have their own style. Underneath those tough and strange exteriors, however, I see girls who want to be noticed and to feel important. Sometimes I get the feeling that because they don’t feel beautiful, they rebel against anything that could come close to looking like themselves. Instead, they want to look “different” just like all their friends. I wonder what would change if they felt acknowledged, beautiful and self-confident.
As older women, we can understand the importance of feeling beautiful and it’s our privilege to be able to recognize the importance of telling young girls and even babies how wonderful and beautiful they truly are. At our age we can appreciate the struggle of the young as they strive to make their mark in the world. When children are appreciated and feel beautiful, their self-esteem rises and they can be just themselves. At least that’s what I’ve observed.
Let’s make a pact today to acknowledge the creativity and beauty of our younger daughters, granddaughters, and teens. And while you’re at it, remember that you too are a wondrous, beautiful miracle of life.
Loved this one! Maybe because I lived by a river and gave myself a mud wrap as a girl
And because my own grandmother accepted our wild 60′s costumes without blinking. Her mantra for us was, Pretty is as pretty does. We might update that wording but the point, of course, remains. And I greet each of my grandsons, Hey, Handsome! Then we dig into what they’re doing. . .
You too Anne? I hope your mud wrap didn’t have that horsey essence that mind did.