“You fix your make up, just so. Guess you don’t know, that you’re beautiful. Try on every dress that you own. You were fine in my eyes, a half hour ago. If your mirror won’t make it any clearer I’ll be the one to let you know” – John Legend “You&I”
I’ve watched the music video of this song a couple of times, and of all the times I’ve watched it, I’ve noticed that there is so much more than just the lyrical sentiment about it. What I observed is that when the video starts, the women featured looked pretty with so much self-confidence, maybe because they had their makeup and weaves on. But towards the end of the video they start removing the makeup and weaves, and there is this anxiety and discomfort in them, until the song gets to the verse “you don’t have to try…”
You probably wondering where I ‘m going with this… Well I believe that this song and the video are dedicated not only to women, but to everyone who is uncomfortable with how they look on the outside. A recent study has shown that models are the most insecure people in the world, and I can imagine that this is the case because they always have to think about how they look, how perfect their pictures are, how much weight they trying to lose.
Lizzie Velásquez was born with a rare congenital disease that prevents hey body from accumulating body fat. And she says that for as long as she has lived; she always thought what defined her was her outer appearance. She thought that her little tiny legs, and her little arms and her little face, was ugly, she thought of herself as disgusting, until she made a choice and decided to reach for her inner greatness. She said “so I told myself I’m going work my butt off and do whatever to make myself better, because in my mind, the best way that I could get back at all those people who made fun of me, who teased me, who called me ugly, who called me a monster, was to make myself better and to show them that all those negative things, I’m going to turn them around and I’m going to use them as a ladder to climb up to my goals. And that’s what I did”
I don’t have a problem with makeup, weaves, or making sure that you look good. I’m all about looking good and feeling fresh. But we are so confined to how we look and not on the inner person that we are that we constantly seeking approval and validation from the outside environment. Unfortunately we live in a world where things change rapidly. It doesn’t matter how beautiful one is , one day you are not going to be as beautiful, doesn’t matter how many makeovers you have, how many times you get yourself pulled up and how many hairdos, how much money you spend on your clothes, it won’t last. Everything passes when its time. And that is why you need to find something inside of yourself, so that no matter what changes in the surface that part of you will not change, it’s the part you will always come back to, the part that guides you, the part that really makes you fulfilled. Everyone and I mean everyone has greatness in them, you just need to continue to shape your mental stability as it’s the only thing that one can always fall back on as it will always be there.
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