What is Makeup to Young Girls?
I have conducted an experiment this week. I chose to not wear makeup for an entire week at work. For someone who usually wears at least minimal makeup everyday, to go an entire week with nothing on, I felt completely naked and exposed. My profession is teaching 5–7 year olds, Kindergarten through 2nd Grade in a blended classroom. I am exposed to also the rest of Elementary, Middle, High School, and my colleagues as this is a small school. For some people this doesn’t seem like a big deal but for me that’s a different story. Let me explain, my features consist of having blonde eyelashes and blonde eyebrows. I am currently 27 years old but as time has gone by, I’ve grown more conscious of what I look like. In high school, I struggled with the reality of it and it didn’t help that all my friends had dark and gorgeous features and here I was sticking out like a sore, pale thumb. As the years went by, I grew to appreciate my lighter features but it wasn’t easy. My mother didn’t teach me about makeup so I wasn’t sure on how to feel more comfortable in my own skin. I would cringe seeing pictures of myself at the beach with my squinty eyes and freckles.
Kids can be brutally honest and as I taught this week, I was asked, “Where did your eyelashes go Ms. Gaby?” I laughed it off and said, “I just didn’t wear makeup today, I decided to show my real beauty.” They looked at me with a puzzled face because many of these young girls have already been exposed to a type of beautiful that meant a face full of makeup. It’d be from their moms, barbie dolls or television shows. As the week continued, I felt like I failed because on Wednesday, I had a student of 6 years of age come to school with bright red lipstick and it didn’t help that every student was offering her compliments on how beautiful they thought she looked, which she did of course. I knew that it didn’t matter what I said or preached to these kids I just had to feel confident in my own skin and continue with the experiment. Since the first day of school, I make it a point to compliment every girl (and boy) on how beautiful they truly are every day they come to school and build up their self confidence. As the rest of the week continued, I don’t know if I managed to get something to stick to their minds. I just know that I was very proud of myself. Every morning, out of habit I would reach for my mascara and had to force myself to leave those blonde eyelashes be. I worried about what my colleagues would think. Maybe they thought that I was being unkempt or just stopped caring for myself when I was actually showing more love and care for myself than I have before. Whenever I looked in the mirror, I pushed myself to give myself a compliment and a smile before I walked out that door. That was enough motivation to keep me going for a few hours. When it comes to vanity, I tend to blame my abuela since from a very young age she wanted me to become more conscious of what I look like when I go out in public and this is very common in Hispanic culture. I did check the mirror a few more times as the day went by but out of disbelief that I was still being brave. Next week, I plan on going back to wearing minimal makeup but not be afraid to take a break from that mascara once in a while, and refer back to this week of natural beauty if any compliments come flying my way. I strongly believe this is the age to really start building your child’s confidence and girls are really going to need it for what comes in the future. Beauty is what emanates from the inside not what you look like on the outside. My daughter is going to be born in a few months and I can’t wait to tell her how beautiful she is every day for the rest of her life but I also can’t wait to see how my self confidence will grow because of her growing more confident in who she is. I always say that I learn a lot from my students even though I’m the teacher, and I know my daughter is going to teach me things that I never thought I’d be able to believe in especially when it comes to natural beauty.