#beauty defined

[emzsidle]

My queens 💞😍💞

[pinkyy-promises]

i cant believe he exists

[emzsidle]

Thank you, Katie. You keep me smiling. 💞

[bigbonebeauty]

REALITY CHECK I don't like what I have become. Yes, this issue I have with my thyroid has played a part in my weigh gain. However, I am at my largest in life and I am the author of this story. I have to stop and reassess my life. Reevaluate my priorities.

[definitionbeautyproject-blog]

Why do you think it’s harder for us to call ourselves beautiful?

“I think this exercise in general makes you reflect on what beauty actually is. I think on some level, maybe it’s a self confidence thing but I think it’s on a larger level, that people are hesitant to speak openly about their positive sides. We tend to focus on our own negatives. Beauty would be one of those positives, so we’re hesitant to bestow that recognition to ourselves but also that responsibility. If you openly admit that you’re this way, you have to ultimately be that way all the time. I think it’s a level of self deprecation and self protection. Personally, I don’t like to come across as arrogant. Like, ‘Yeah! I’m beautiful!’ To me that comes across as one of the most arrogant statements you can actually say. Given context, it’s not arrogant at all, but I’m still hesitant.” (4/4)

[definitionbeautyproject-blog]

“In India there was a day that we were blessed with the opportunity to visit women in prostitution within the red light district in Delhi. Here we are – five, privileged Americans plus myself – sitting down with these women. We can’t communicate with them outside our translator. They could only speak Hindi. I think the only thing we knew how to say at that point was, 'Thank you,' and 'Hello.' Being a man in that situation I honestly couldn’t connect at all. These women had men stand for exploitation and oppression in their lives, so obviously I’m associated with that on some level. But there was this singular moment in which Maddie and this women were trading pictures over their cell phones and sharing pictures of their families and where they came from. There’s no translator needed, just a common understanding of what family means. The cultural barrier, the language barrier all disintegrated in a singular moment of just mutual understanding. For me that, that level of human connection despite all the barriers was beautiful. That is a moment that I’ll point to for the rest of my life as being a defining quality of what beauty truly is and something that kind of changed my perspective on life.” (3/4)

[definitionbeautyproject-blog]

Describe this characteristic. What does the characteristic make you feel like?

“There’s an inherent beauty in the complexity of life in general. If you look at aspen trees, they aren’t that glorious above ground, but underneath they have this amazing network of roots that allows them to communicate with one another. That’s something beautiful about the aspen tree that no other organism has. Then you look at a more traditional tree like an oak tree. It’s grand, it’s beautiful in its own right, and it has these deep roots that go and reach far into the earth that are completely different. It’s impossible to compare the two on a level of beauty; they’re both beautiful in their own right. I think people are the same way. All moments are the same way.

“Like I was running the other day through the National Mall, and it was during the Million Man March. I was struck by how many people you pass by every day, and you never know how incredibly small you are. I don’t know. It was refreshing.”

Sounds humbling, too.

“Yeah. I like being humbled.” (2/4)

[definitionbeautyproject-blog]

How do you define beauty?

“I’m going to think about it for a little bit… I don’t know, for me. First and foremost, there’s the contextual definition. You look at what beauty has been defined as throughout history, and it’s always constantly changing. Then you look at the things that people have historically defined as beautiful, and they’re all kind of categorized around physical traits. But I think that just misses the mark completely in a sense that like, I’ve always felt that beauty goes beyond the physical, which is why a singular moment can be beautiful for no reason. It’s not one of things that you necessarily define but you just intuitively know, ‘That was beautiful.’ I feel like it’s more of a trait or a characteristic, than something you see. Something more that you feel, in a sense.” (1/4)