Most young girls are taught at a young age, “beauty is on the inside.” Some reason as we became preteens, it turns into a thought, and as we hit high school, the thought doesn’t even exist anymore. Insecurities hit, judgmental attitudes grow and true beauty is forgotten, instead perceived as name brand clothing, painted-on faces, skinny, and other twisted attributes. Young girls focus on others to distract them from their own painful thoughts about what they feel is wrong with themselves. As young adults, the mindset is still there, yet individuals are more interested in perfecting their self-image, striving for the perfect skin, hair, body, etc. to look great no matter what they were born with, or changes life has thrown their way — let’s not forget about the prevention of aging. Most women find what they think is the answer in expensive beauty products or treatments.

There is no product to make a woman perfect. Not even for Hollywood. Stars pay big money and still aren’t satisfied. We see advertisements about how to “Get thicker hair!”, “Lose 20 lbs!”, “Get clearer skin in 7 days!” the list goes on. These multi-billion dollar companies make so much money off of our insecurities, it is sick. I once fell into the idea of buying hair care to get “fuller, thicker, longer, shiny” hair. It didn’t work. Surprised? I was at first. Seeing women with long full hair made me desire for the same thing. I thought, “I want that.” Being the conservative penny-pincher that I am, I spent $100, all to feel duped. We are our biggest critics. We say that we don’t care what others think, when in reality we are the harshest on ourselves!

The product isn’t even FDA approved. Many of these miracle treatments are not or have horrifying side affects that we ignore because we are eager for the fast-magic results! While reading a Latisse advertisement, I noticed that it promises to make your eyelashes longer and fuller with the filled with warnings. Yet the company is still profitable and in business, why? Because women are still buying; yes, eyelashes represent femininity. Ladies, if that is what you desire, for the sake of your vision, stick to mascara!

It is easy to spend a quick $50 to get what you don’t have, but is this realistic? Not likely. How often do all of these things really work? Of course the commercial or add is going to say it does. They are selling an idea more than anything. The idea of being more beautiful, more perfect. The idea that other women will envy you and men will drool over you. We need to stop feeding into it. Why feel any less beautiful because you have blemishes, short or thin hair, thin lips, and whatever else? Also, putting these harsh chemicals on our hair, skin and into our bodies is not healthy. Read the warning labels. They practically guarantee risks, rather than the product.

Some blame the media. Others blame their upbringing as to why they feel the need to look a certain way. Placing blame on anything or anyone makes it sound OK to feel this way, but is it really? What good does this do? Keep in mind that the images of people that we see in the spotlight are dramatically edited and they spend every minute of their waking day to diet and exercise.

We all know how to stay in shape and eat right, whether we actually do it or not. However, watermelon helps speed up your metabolism and with its high water content, it causes you to urinate frequently, loosing water weight. Why search online,when you can literally just search through the refrigerator? Stop putting your money and faith into beauty products when all you need to do is simply put time and energy into taking care of yourself! There is no price for perfect, because it does not exist.