The Biggest Stereotype: Beauty

I've been struggling with the way I look since I hit puberty. Most girls have. My raging hormones forced upon me a size 7 1/2 foot, chunky thighs, nails that break after reaching a mm in length, and lots and lots of ugly zits. Then I was blessed with a growth spurt leaving me at a full 5 feet 2 inches (for life), and scoliosis that makes one of my hips stick out farther than the other. Nice, right? Needless to say, the picture I have of myself isn't so pretty.

We all have the stereotypical image of beauty ingrained in our brains. The super-skinny, super-tall, and amazingly gorgueous figure; The Super-Model.

Of course we all know why tall and lanky is the chosen look for run-way models; they're pretty. "Their frames are the best for showing off the clothes." Yeah, alright. But so what? Tall and lanky isn't the build of most of the world's women. It's actually a surprisingly small margine. So why do they do it??

That question is one that I've had a ridiculous amount of trouble answering. They're as tiny around as a stick, they're freakishly tall, and they're unrealistically flawless. How is that possible? Well...it's not. We make them look that way.

Two years ago my mom decided she was going to drag me along to the mall. Normally I would have been all for it ("Hey! Let's stop by the cosmetics counter! Whoa! Good times!!"), but on this particular day, I was feeling really down and crappy. I was sick and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed. It was only like 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning, so I very much doubted I'd run into anybody I knew, and for that reason I threw on sweats and a T-shirt, and completely bypassed the makeup (something I very rarely do). On our way out a lady at a kiosk in the middle of the mall stopped us. She was spreading word that Barbizon was "looking for new talent." For those of you that aren't obbsessed with the fashion world (I'm right there with you), Barbizon is a modeling agency. They select girls they believe have talent to be in magazine and tv adds, light up the run-way, and make cameo appearances in Hollywood movies.

Three weeks later I was shipped off to an interview with one of their scouts, and three weeks after that I got a message informing me that they were "quite impressed" with me and wanted me to first attend their training school, and then join their agency.

I have to addmit that I was a little surprised. I mean, I look at myself in the mirror and cringe. My pimples have definitely decreased in number, and my features have grown out a little, but I'm still not satisfied with the way I look.

And I had been in sweats and a t-shirt, with absolutely NO make-up to speak of, and my hair in a messy bun! Why did they even stop me?!

Wondering these things out loud, the lady who did my interview explained to me: Yes; run-way models are tall and lanky and very very skinny. That's their build. That's their stereotype. That's what a run-way model is. BY DEFINITION. A girl like me, would never see the run-way. Yeah, I guess I'm skinny thanks to gymnastics, but I was also a dancer. And dancers have tone. Short + muscle = no run-way. Okay, whatever. That didn't bother me. Knowing me, I'd fall flat on my face, and become road kill to the next model to come out (anybody who watches Sex & the City knows exactly what I'm talking about).

So then this lady (very nice, for anybody who thinks the fashion world is full of crotchety old women) told me how different builds model different things. Everybody is just so focused on the newest fashions coming off the French run-way that the other models don't get as much attention. And has nobody heard of Plus-Size models? The PS run-ways are actually recieving quite a bit more coverage now that the bulk of teens are going to scary dangerous lengths to be skinny.

Yes; models are chosen based on their height and size. That's absolutely true. But they're also selected based on material. That's how I got selected.

Models are girls that can be fashioned to look anyway you want. One of the biggest fads in the fashion industry now are bi-racial girls; girls that can look one way in one shot, and a completely different way in another (say Asian in one, and American in another). It's almost frightening how photographers and make-up artists can do that.

Models are blank canvases. They can be made up to look any way they're wanted to look. And that's why models are so revered.

Most girls have feature traits; traits that stand out and go BAM! Traits that, no matter what, can't be covered up, and don't go away. I'm not sure why you'd want your best traits to disappear, but that's beside the point; models are a minority that lack a stand-out quality.

Sometimes a stand-out feature can be used in an advertisement, i.e. perfectly shaped lips in a lipstick ad, unusually colored eyes with long lashes in a mascara or eyeshadow ad, hands with super long, delicate-looking fingers in a wedding ring ad. That's not unusual. But, again, these models are often over-looked for the big-time run-way girls.

And then most of us just aren't discovered. That's how I see it. All of us have something positively astounding about us. Maybe we can't see it ourselves, but other people do. Surely somebody's commented about how shiny and glossy your hair looks. Or how breathtaking your eyes are. Or how shockingly graceful your movements are. Or even how cute you are when you laugh or blush (such comments from guys are usually pretty reliable; they're too chicken to talk about feelings, but compliments are a generally a dead giveaway). The way we see ourselves is kind of like the way we get used to a certain smell. We smell it so often, eventually we become immune to it.

Now I LOVE my make-up. I love love love love love it. And at the same time, I can't stand it. I'd call it a love/hate relationship. I put so much crap on my eyes because they're my stand-out feature. I've had people walk past me, and then turn around, come back, and just stare at me. Of course I get all freaked out and they mumble a "sorry, I've never seen eyes like yours before" and scurry off all bashful. And yeah, once I get over the initial "wow that was weird", I feel better about myself. I know it's horrible, but make-up boosts self-esteem. We look pretty to other people, and then we look pretty to ourselves, because we're excepted. And we are our own worst critic; no matter what anybody else can say about us, we'll always find something worse.

We feel pressured to fit in, to have friends, and live life ceremoniously. And that's a stereotype of beauty. The pretty people fit in. The pretty people have friends. The pretty people have perfect lives. Yeah? Maybe they do. I don't know. I'm not one of the "pretty people" in my school.

I've been told I don't group in with them. I have my own group. It's called "Intimidating." I guy told me I was one of the most intimidating people he ever met. Now being the tiny little light-weight that I am, I didn't believe him for a minute, and openly laughed. He told me I'm intimidating, not because of what I say and do, but because of how I react and observe. My attitude apparently "gives off an aura" that makes people stop and look. I don't care what people think or say about me, because I have my own opinion of me. And a confident, fearless girl is one of the scariest and most attractive things to a guy.

So what if Twiggy is the new beauty icon. You know who was gorgeous before her; Maryland Monroe. And she was one curvy woman. She had the body that most women do. Skin and Bone models are only pretty to us because we can't be them. We can't have their bodies, and that's why we want them. If we could look like them, we wouldn't be happy. We'd be looking for some other unatainable image to strive for. It's one big vicious cycle. We will never be happy with what we have.

The things I hate about myself, are what make me me. And I know that's an overused line, but it's overused for a reason; it's true. I would rather be me, flaws and all, than somebody else's cookie-cutter image of a beautiful person. Raw Beauty is so much prettier than Classic Beauty, because the Classic has been twisted into an unreal cliche. They all look the same. Raw Beauty is it's own; it's different. Just like every person in the world. We're not all meant to be the same. We're unique for a reason.