We are beautiful (a post for all the women)

"When men go gray they look distinguished, when women go grey they just look old"

Yesterday I had a conversation with a women on this statement. She is in the process of letting her dyed hair grow out to it's natural white, and it looks great.

I really believe that we all look older when we go grey, but isn't that is the point? We are getting older. But when was it decided that only men are allowed to hold the title of 'distinguished' when they age and not women? Why, as we age, are we striving to look younger? Why is not normal to embrace your age and look beautiful there, the place in which you should be proud that you have come to?

This thought got me thinking of women and our expected appearance.
(I am going to apologize in advance, I am on a slight feminist rant this morning. Sometimes I think in a past life I was a Suffragette, or a feminist from the 1960's. :) 

I am all for dying and styling your hair, wearing fancy clothes, waxing, and wearing makeup. That is one of the best parts of being a girl. We are able to use our bodies as a art display. Showing the world who we are and what we want in life. We have the power to create how we feel about ourselves. Making our faces and bodies appear the way we want is part of that journey. Looking 'pretty' can be an empowering thing.

I just don't believe that everyone embraces that feeling of looking 'pretty' as an empowering quality. I fear that it has become a burden and an expectation for most women to wear makeup, to do their hair, to have no hair on their bodies, or to not look old. We try so hard most days to look perfect, that the failure in that goal can bring us crumbling down. We let bad hair day ruin our day, sometimes week. Some women feel vulnerable and naked with out makeup on and won't even leave there house with out it.

Is that want we want for women?
Is that what we want to teach to our girls?

We need to embrace our true being. Take care of your body. Take care of your spirit. We need to let go of these obsessions on what we have decided beauty is. Embrace the feeling of taking care of yourself, allowing yourself to indulge in beauty, and making it fun and uplifting. We need less obligation and less judgments to our women.

We are all beautiful. All of us. We encompass beauty in our existence. That is part of our awesome qualities as Women. We are grace, love, tenderness and beauty.

That sounds like such a cliche, but it is true. Being a good person, being kind and loving, being true and honest to yourself, these qualities project beauty.

Have you ever met someone who doesn't look 'conventionally beautiful' but as you indulge in conversation with them they start to appear more and more enchanting to you? 
this speaks true to the fact that our presence and our attitude speaks much more loudly then our outer appearance.

I want my girls to grow up knowing that they are beautiful. I want them to know that they are beauty to the core, that their true being is beautiful, not just their outer appearance. Being honest to themselves is what makes them beautiful.
I know that they will learn this from me. It is very important to me that they feel empowered as women. But it would be much easier if the rest of the world followed suit. It would be less of an up hill battle to teach all of our precious children that they are the beauty that the world exists to. They define what is beauty, and if we let the strict parameters of beauty disappear, the wouldn't we all feel a little more free?
Beauty exists in everyone.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Jessica