Beauty has always been an important thing in many cultures, especially ours. Beauty is a big role for my generation and for many others before mine. Every girl wants to feel pretty and appreciated. It’s just a normal human need and desire. Sadly, not everyone sees their own beauty from societal standards and the desire for beauty comes with a price. Throughout centuries there has been many crazy practices for beauty, and no matter how absurd they sound, many of us will do almost anything to feel pretty. It’s all because the pressure we have faced in society.

Some beauty practices just hurt for a moment, like waxing eyebrows. Sadly, some things we do for beauty come with a price that hurts for more than just a moment with a sting. Even though we have more body positivity movements, it doesn’t mean we aren’t bombarded and pressured to feel and look a certain way still, so that means, we will still go to the things that can be dangerous for that price. One of the biggest products that have made its way in the beauty and fitness world is the waist trainer. I won’t lie, I invested in one. Sadly, I didn’t realize the harm that it could have caused me if I wore it everyday. Luckily for me, I have not paid the price that many would have with this contraption.

Waist trainers aren’t like a wax, a laser, or the wrap where you feel something for a second and the pain is gone. The waist trainer squeezes your insides and can crush internal organs. It can mess up your lungs, heart, and digestive system from squashing your internal organs. The corset used to and continues to do the same exact thing too. Between the waist trainer, corsets, and obsessive hair removal, our society has come to be more self-conscious. With all the pressure we have that makes us self-conscious, there’s also more plastic surgery being advertised on social media. I am not saying that it is bad to get something done, because if you’re doing it to make you feel good, it’s different, but so many people feel so much hatred for there beauty and self-worth that they get something done to not hate themselves anymore, and when this happens, this is where the price of beauty is too high.

There’s so much pressure that we have as women to want to feel pretty and almost be perfect. We all want to be fit and look fit, have perfect lips, a perfect stomach, and perfect eyes, but nothing is perfect. Everyone is beautiful, but nobody is perfect. The sad thing is that we continue to try and try all of these gimmicks and take a million selfies because insecurities as we put on waist trainers and drink the gimmick slim teas as we scroll through Instagram contemplating if we should get lip fillers. The truth is that if society has girls wanting perfection at this price, the price of beauty is far too high. It’s okay to want nice eyebrows and dress nice, while doing things for you, but if you’re doing it out of negativity or because of societal pressure, the price of beauty is too high. Practice safe and healthy beauty habits that are healthy for your mind and body, because you’re beautiful how you are.