In the beauty industry, I have many conversations with women about their appearance and the subject of aging comes up often. Everyone is different in their attitudes about aging but I have come across so many women feeling bad or apologetic for not looking 25 forever and they are not happy with what they see in the mirror. They don’t wear their age with pride even though they’ve earned every right to strut around like a peacock. They’ve had lives with careers, loves, children, education, travels, achievements and yet they are left feeling irrelevant, unimportant, and ignored while young girls have an inflated sense of self because the world has rolled out the red carpet for them. This is ASS BACKWARDS.
It’s easy for women to see their value through the lens of male-dominated media where youth, beauty, and a thin body are overrepresented. When we age or gain weight, we can easily lose our personal power and our self esteem ends up in the gutter. As far as we’ve come in our economic and social positions in society, we still can’t seem to shake the legacy of times when we were mere property, valued for what we could offer a man.
This has to stop but where do we begin? It’s starts inside.
We need to value our own character, experience, and wisdom over our physical appearance and wear it with pride. If we start to do this, it will reflect in how we look at other women and then maybe, just maybe, it will overflow into our media and society.
We will lead by example for generations of women to come. Show them that they are SO MUCH MORE than their appearance and have EVERYTHING to offer this planet. We need to stop fearing age and embrace it. We need to demand respect from others for who we are, what we know, and what we’ve achieved rather than how sexually appealing we are.
So next time you find yourself critiquing your neck or thighs or crow’s feet or flabby arms or boob size or weight , think about what really matters, the wonderful life you have created, the children you raised, or the numerous adventures that you have lived to tell the tale of. No more apologies! You are a beautiful soul and no amount of wrinkles or age spots will change that.
4 comments
Thank you so much for this! I really needed to feel empowered today. Rock on sisters!
Feb 14/2018 time to feel love for my body,my spirit, my inner strength, the courage to dig deep and embrace the beautiful women that I have always been
Thank you! Wheels are turning in my head… It’s time for a complete turnaround about how our society views ageing. And it starts with ourselves. Thank you for this inspiring article.
This was honestly the best article/blog I have ever read. I am going to re read this ever day…..to remind myself about all that is right in the world. Thank you!