Why does there always have to be choice as to what qualities or characteristics a young girl or women should posses? Why is that we can be one, but we cannot be the other? Why can't girls be more than just a pretty face? It can be so baffling sometimes how society places more emphasis on a woman's physical attractiveness and how a person's beauty is correlated to smart they are. A young girl or women with blond hair should not be referenced to as "stupid" or "dumb" because of stereotypes portrayed in the media. It shouldn't be a crime or unheard for a woman to say that she is both smart and beautiful, nor should it be a crime to have choose one quality over another.
Why do we always assume that pretty girls have to be dumb, and anyone who isn't seen as beautiful is more intelligent than the average person? A person's beauty, especially women, should not have to define how smart or capable they are. When you judge someone based on their physical appearance, you are not taking the time to get know what kind of person they are. You see their outward appearance as more valuable or more important than their inside or personality. In other words, you are not understanding who they are as a person. There's a common saying that not everyone is who they appear to be: a tall blonde could be the next doctor or the next Nobel-Prize winner, but you would never know unless you had a conversation with her. The way you can truly get to know someone for who they truly are is by listening to what they say and how they act. The way someone composes or express themselves says more about than their face. Your face doesn't hold truth, but your lips do, and that is the only way to ever truly know a person. Holding people to a certain standard or expectation because of the way they look is being stereotypical and allowing preconceived notions to decide what you think this person is like. As cliché as it might sound, you should never judge a book by its title because you might miss out on a good story. If we all jumped to conclusions about each person we meet in our lives, we wouldn't be able to form relationships because we have already made up our minds on what we expect from them. Taking the time to know a woman for who she is will allow you to understand what an extraordinary human being she is.
While we (human beings) are to blame for the way we perceive others, I also believe that the media plays a big part in how we see ourselves and others. If there is anything I have learned from watching reality and drama shows is that what is shown on television is not a true representation of reality. Everything is dramatized to entice the viewers and have an overall dramatic effect. However, the media is shaping the way we see ourselves by portraying superficial celebrities and making us believe that your physical appearance is more important than how you carry yourself. When you have celebrities like the Kardashians who place so much emphasis their outward appearances, it makes you wonder what we are teaching young girls and women? The media places so much emphasis on beauty and attractiveness that is hurting the confidence of young girls everywhere. Girls have this idea of what they should like and start to compare themselves to celebrities as some sort of validation. They think it's better to be beautiful than to embrace their intelligence, which leads to them selling themselves short and not giving their full potential. We aren't teaching them how to think, how to be smart and how to set yourself apart. We are teaching them that all they are good for is their looks and they are nothing more than a pretty face.
That's not the kind of message I would want to send to my future daughters. I want them to believe that you can be both smart and beautiful; it doesn't have to be an either-or decision. There's more to life than being just pretty. I have always been a firm believer that beauty is only skin deep; you can have the most beautiful face, but if you're inside does not match your outside, then are you really beautiful? A person's heart, character, mind and soul say so much more than what your face could ever say. Beauty springs from the inside out: When you are beautiful on the inside, it radiates on the outside.
To all the young women reading this, don't play small or limit yourself because someone told you that you can't be both. Embrace everything about yourself and own your confidence, your beauty, your mind, your passion, strength and everything that makes you who you are. I'm not saying it's wrong to be beautiful or embrace your beauty, I'm saying you don't have to be just beautiful. A beautiful face deserves to share her beautiful mind and impact others with her potential.
So, listen ladies when I tell you that you can be both; you can flaunt your beauty and be a genius at the same time. Intelligence is beautiful and deserves more than what you credit yourself for.
