{"id":498,"date":"2013-03-24T04:20:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T04:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/?p=498"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:18:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:18:54","slug":"when-beauty-goes-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/2013\/03\/24\/when-beauty-goes-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"When Beauty Goes Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Art by Taryn Riera SC ’15<\/p><\/div>\n

My first encounter with a beauty blog occurred on Facebook. More than ten of my female friends had shared a video of British-born Nigerian blogger Britpopprincess<\/em>. In this video, titled \u201cworst make up tag: Beyonc!\u201d, Britpopprincess was showing how many young women all over the world and especially in Nigeria were failing at their attempts to achieve Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cflawless\u201d skin. Over night, Britpopprincess<\/em> became an Internet session (at least among Africans in the diaspora). After my encounter with Britpopprincess, <\/em>I spent more time watching beauty and fashion blogs. Every time anyone commented on the obscene amount of time I was spending on YouTube, I would always refer to the \u201centertainment value\u201d these channels provide. \u00a0Fortunately or unfortunately, my views on beauty blogs changed dramatically when I stumbled upon what in my mind is an unconventional make-up tutorial\u2026<\/p>\n

On my screen was a 5-year-old girl (missing a couple of front teeth) holding a sparkly wand, adorned with a shimmering crown, and wearing a pink tutu and glitter all over her body. As soon as I saw this \u201cprincess\u201d on my screen, I quickly glanced up to make sure I had clicked on the right video. Indeed it was: this make-up tutorial was called \u201chow to achieve the perfect evening look.\u201d To say I was shocked is an understatement, but I decided to watch the 5- minute video partly because I was completely mesmerized by her cuteness and partly because I didn\u2019t think the video was serious. I was certain that this was a prelude to the real make-up tutorial. Boy, was I wrong! This cutie was armed with professional brushes and different types of expensive make-up brands. I watched as she explained how to apply foundation without looking \u201ccakey,\u201d achieve the winged eye liner, and apply blush and concealer to achieve the most natural look possible. Her aptitude for make-up was astonishing, and it dawned on me that this child probably had better make-up skills than I will ever acquire in my entire life. Midway into the video, I was no longer mesmerized by her cuteness; I was seriously trying to comprehend how her interest in makeup started, who taught her, and why anyone allowed her to have a channel on YouTube.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think its cute when a 5-year-old child is seriously dishing out make-up advice and showing me what to look like when I\u2019m going on a hot date. Why should she know what a hot date is? Beauty blogs like hers are a sad reminder of how \u201creal\u201d the world has become. Innocence doesn\u2019t exist as much anymore, and sadly, very few 5 \u2013 year- olds seem to be living the lives we did at their age. Children no longer exist; they don\u2019t spend time constructing their own realities, babble on about nothing, or watch cartoons all day. They\u2019ve all grown up, and society has allowed that to happen. \u00a0If a mother, like the mother in the video I watched, urges her daughter on, telling her to hold the brushes tighter and to focus the webcam on the labels of her products, how can the rest of society be motivated to shield children from the harsh realities of life?<\/p>\n

Most of the problems that occur in our adult lives take root in our childhood. How do we expect women to feel confident in their own skin if at such a young age they are encouraged to apply make-up and dress in certain ways, if they are encouraged to seek superficial beauty? Now, I have no problem with applying make-up to enhance one\u2019s features. This is my principle; if you\u2019re using make-up to hide how you truly feel about yourself, then it\u2019s not right! You need to stop and address the real reason behind your lack of self-confidence. \u00a0It should not be acceptable for a child to own a beauty blog; rather, we must encourage children such that they do not fall prey to society\u2019s forces. Let\u2019s teach young girls to love themselves such that when they grow older, they will be strong enough to battle the pressures of our society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking society’s hold: a look into the effects of young girls’ creation of beauty blogs on the female psyche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vol-4-issue-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/05\/beautyblogfinal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}