Even from a young age, girls are trained to think that they need makeup to be beautiful. From dressed up Barbie dolls to celebrities on the television, makeup is everywhere. It is now just a regular social standard, but this needs to stop.
“[Makeup] teaches girls and women to cover up things that make them who they truly are,” said junior Mark Crockett.
Most girls wear makeup without even thinking about it, and many feel that they need makeup in order to look presentable. “The reason people wear makeup is to look beautiful and confident,” said junior Layly Roodsari.
Girls who don’t wear makeup have many reasons, and often it isn’t that they’re more confident without it. For Roodsari, going makeup free is reasonable “because you have to pay money for makeup and you have to put it on and I don’t even have time for that. And it doesn’t make a difference.”
And while makeup in itself isn’t bad, it can even be a good thing when used in moderation and when paired with a confident attitude, the overuse of makeup lends to the bad habit of covering the imperfections that make each and everyone of us human.
Is it self-consciousness that leads girls to wear makeup, or is it because makeup is now just a societal normality? I believe that it’s a bit of both. Society is at the core of the problem, but makeup allows people to run from what they dislike about themselves instead of truly seeing themselves and embracing their natural beauty.
Makeup can lead young girls to believe that they aren’t good or pretty enough without makeup on. In today’s society, the media is filled with images of women who are photoshopped or laden with makeup, leading to unrealistic standards of beauty. This is dangerous territory that society is entering into.
Instead of hiding our flaws we should embrace them. Summer is the perfect time to leave the mascara and lipstick behind, and instead have fun in the sun, makeup free and all the more beautiful because of it.