My revelations remind me of all the drop dead gorgeous women I know, who if you ask them if they think they’re beautiful will say, “I’m beautiful on the inside,” as if their fabulous outer package is the equivalent of scrap metal. By contrast, I remember an interview between Oprah and Selma Hayek, where Selma unselfconsciously owned her beauty. I found that so inspiring.
My friend Sabrina and I were talking about how if weren’t afraid we would get out of our sweats and Eddie Bauer pants. Yet the last few times we’ve run into each other we’ve been wearing ... sweats and Eddie Bauer pants.
As Marianne Williamson so eloquently reminds us, we serve no one when we hide our beauty. Enjoy it; it’s a gift, no different from your intelligence, your empathy, or your compassion. Each is to be celebrated, enjoyed, and used. Yes, your beauty will change, and it isn’t permanent, but just as a bright, sunny day will eventually turn to darkness or rain, that doesn’t mean you can’t dance in the sun while it shines.
Use your beauty. Embrace it. Share it with the world. Let yourself be beautiful.
Karly Randolph Pitman is the founder of First Ourselves, whose mission is to help women love their bodies, feel beautiful and make self care a priority.
