How to feel beautiful without makeup

As a young girl, I was always intrigued in makeup. I remember going to Claire's and buying the silly themed kids makeup sets that didn’t work. I’ve always been a creative person, but I never thought my creativity would be reflected on my face. My aunt always did my makeup for daddy-daughter dances, and we’d always had beauty nights. As I grew up, I started sneaking mascara past my mom until i finally got caught.After that incident I was finally given permission to wear makeup and I was ecstatic. I bonded with my aunt talking about makeup and it's true that something as silly as makeup brought my aunt and I closer together. My makeup collection grew very quickly, and now I have more makeup then I know what to do with, but I always want more. Makeup is my love, the way I express myself but when I was in middle school and as my self confidence worsened because of my acne, makeup wasn’t fun anymore. It became the only thing to make me feel beautiful. I refused to go to school if I didn’t have makeup on, which just made my acne worse overall. I wasn’t happy and I missed doing makeup as a creative outlet. I was doing it because I felt as if I was required to do makeup to be beautiful. Something needed to change, so I worked hard to feel beautiful without makeup. 

I first had to realize that being without makeup isn’t wrong, but the way society views girls without makeup is. Society often makes it seem that girls need to be full glam everyday to be found attractive. TV shows make women look completely put together to do simple chores. Even women who are supposedly “fresh faced” have makeup on in commercials. It’s no wonder woman feel as if their required to wear makeup. If you know you’ll be sweating, or are just going somewhere like to the grocery store, you are not required to wear makeup. Society needs to change, you don’t.

After wearing makeup every single day for months, I realized that I was doing more harm than good. Although I was washing my face every day and taking care of my skin, my acne was getting worse and worse because of how often and how much makeup I was wearing. When I started to take a break from my makeup I saw a noticeable change in my skin. Obviously, I’m a teenager and I’m going to have acne. And with my depression, taking care of my skin can get hard. Now that I don’t wear makeup as often and when I do it’s not as much, my skin is healthier. My acne is one of my biggest insecurities so I started to cut down on my makeup so I’d feel more beautiful, and I’m so happy I made that decision. 

The last step I took to feel beautiful, is to simply not care what others think. I’ve been trying to focus on putting myself first and that included wearing makeup for me, and not for the approval of others. I know as teens it’s hard to not care what others think, and it might take a while to get there, but in the long run it’s worth it. When I finally didn’t care what others felt about me, I felt relieved. I didn’t have to get up at 5:30 in the morning everyday to put on a full face of makeup. I was wearing makeup to have fun and make myself happy and because I enjoyed it. I was no longer doing it for the approval of others and to feel beautiful. I felt beautiful, inside and out, without the makeup and that was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced. 

Megan