Beauty-Full

I recently saw an online album of “Shocking Pictures of Celebrities Without Make-Up”. It wasn’t that shocking. The pictures on the left, sans makeup, were real people, barely recognizable as stars. The pictures on the right were as we know them in the movies, on the red carpet and on magazine covers. The cosmetics industry is reported to make over $40 billion each year. That comes from you and I covering up what’s wrong, coloring what’s not the right shade, bronzing the white and enhancing what’s too subtle. We pay it. The truth is, it is difficult to be your real self anywhere, but especially if you’re famous. Real is not pretty. Blemishes aren’t beautiful. Wrinkles are not worthy.

And this soft skin I've lived with since those sweet sons took shape inside, and the big feet that I can't find cute shoes for often enough, and the curly hair that makes for craziness in the humidity-

all this is who I am.

And what is real if not beautiful? And I look at my friends' daughters, without a care in polka dots and stripes, in sparkly shoes and gap-toothed smiles, and I think to myself: I hope they never change. I hope they're always who they are.