First off, if you have never heard this song you should 100% listen to it before you read this because I think it will mean more to you. (Link is below)
When I first heard the song, I saw the title on my radio in my car and was a little annoyed. Scars and Beautiful? I thought why...why an oxymoron because scars are not beautiful, especially to someone like me who has them for reasons they wish they didn't. As the song began to play I listened very closely. My eyes filled with water, that turned into tears and I cried for the entire duration of the song.
Now you are probably wondering why I seemed rather offended by the title of the song before I heard it. Anyone who has self-harmed or self-harms in any way, shape, or form would probably wonder why Alessia Cara's song was named "Scars to Your Beautiful" and not associate scars with beautiful. However, like I said, the song made me cry a lot and listen closely to Cara's message she was getting across.
"So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away
'Cause cover girls don't cry after their face is made "
I felt like these lyrics were so relatable and this is what immediately made me break down. Realizing that I am not the only one and knowing that famous people are singing about a topic that needs more attention. Many people today will do anything to hide their pain. Unfortunately, sometimes it leads to people bringing pain to themselves like Cara sings about.
"She has dreams to be an envy, so she's starving
You know, cover girls eat nothing
She says beauty is pain and there's beauty in everything
What's a little bit of hunger?
I could go a little while longer, she fades away"
When these lyrics came on, I felt a connection not only to myself, but to some of my good friends. So many girls today do not eat because of what society sees as perfect and pretty and beautiful. Not eating for people leads to them to an eating disorder. There are multiple eating disorders, but this is one of them. The eating disorders lead to girls taking measures their body should never go near. They become sick, fatigued, skinnier than skinny, hopeless, worthless and so many more things. Alessia Cara makes it a point that this is not what girls need to do.
"She don't see her perfect, she don't understand she's worth it
Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface"
At this point of the song, I had been bawling my eyes out. "She don't see her perfect, she don't understand she's worth it" were such powerful phrases put together that I at that very moment needed to hear and know that many others need to hear them too. Many people today think they are worthless and this is a real issue, because no matter who you are, you are worth something. Beauty isn't all about looks either which many people have embedded in their mind as true, it goes so much deeper than looks.
"So to all the girls that's hurting
Let me be your mirror, help you see a little bit clearer
The light that shines within"
When Alessia Cara said, "let me be your mirror" I had no words for how she was getting this message across. The message she wanted to get across to the listener was only from a couple minute song and she succeeded. She was saying that hey, if you think you are nothing, and worthless, and don't like yourself, and even if you have scars, I am here to tell you that you are more than that. She believes that there is a light within that makes you who you are and makes you special and that you deserve to think well of yourself always.
"But there's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark
You should know you're beautiful just the way you are
And you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart
No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful "
These are the most powerful lyrics to me. Being stuck in a dark tunnel and feeling like you're never going to escape is one of the worst feelings, but it is pointed out that there is HOPE waiting there for you. She sings that you should know your beautiful even if you do not think so because you are. There is nothing one should think they need to change because everyone was made the way they were made for a reason. Special, unique, different, beautiful, and so on. Society has a huge impact on this for many people. It isn't the person who needs to change, it is the society we live in and the heart of the world we live in. Scars aren't what makes a person beautiful, but just because one may have them doesn't make them any less. A person can be beautiful with or without them.
Everyone is a star and no matter what, everyone is beautiful.
Songs are long poems but in a musical format. I love songs and poems. Because of those two special things, I love music. Music like Alessia Cara's "Scars to Your Beautiful" is what more, and more people need to listen to. It is truly beautiful and can make those who seem unable to smile, smile.
