''The scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That's it. it cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life, force, possibility, strength or love''- anon

I often wonder how on earth it is that we are enslaved by the idea that somehow our worth is tied to the size that appears on our jeans or the weight that appears on the scale? Like most women I am my own worst critic when it comes to my body.  A recent statistic revealed that 80% of women world wide are dissatisfied with their appearance. This is undoubtedly fueled by constantly being bombarded with unrealistic images of what is apparently considered beautiful. The definition of beauty is often portrayed in a narrow sense in modern society because to be beautiful you need to look a certain way.  However beauty is much wider than it is portrayed and even understood in fact it is a fair assumption that given the diversity of women around the world beauty simply cannot be categorized'.

Who decides what's beautiful???? that's the question I pose to you. Surely beauty is subjective and as a result we cannot sit here and judge not only ourselves but other people. How often do we have a comment to make about the random stranger passing us by in the street, what right do we have to even question or evaluate their beauty. In my honest opinion the image we see around us of tall, skinny drop dead gorgeous models in magazines or on TV will only become more realistic when we as society stop expecting someone to look a certain way before we consider them beautiful. I find it sad when I  see a women starve herself or drastically alter her appearance for the sake of others. Do not get me wrong I am all for self improvement if it makes a women feel good and builds up her confidence. My problem comes in when we use unrealistic benchmarks to live up to. Improve yourself by working what you got, don't feel pressured to alter the very uniqueness of your body. Remember beauty is more than a size, shape, race or gender its something unexplainable that it stems from someone's soul and character, it cannot be measured. 

I have friends who are smaller in size and no matter what they do they struggle to gain weight. As a result of snide remarks and comments about being to skinny they feel pressure to pack on the pounds. Weight is a double edged sword because as we all know bigger built women feel pressured to lose weight in order to be considered good looking. People will never reach a consensus about beauty, because it truly is in the eye of the beholder. The most important thing we as women need to realize is that as long as we are looking after our bodies by being healthy we are recognizing our beauty and preserving it.  I would like to stress the importance  of remembering this one thing, only you have the power to radiate and showcase your beauty. No one has the right to dictate how you should look in order to be beautiful. 

Whilst researching the topic of who defines beauty I came across Doves new campaign. I am not an avid user of the brand but I was rather impressed with the marketing teams approach( I study marketing and wish I  come up with this). They asked a group of women to describe themselves ( or at least how they see themselves ) as honestly as possible to world a renowned  FBI trained sketch artist who was placed behind a curtain unable to see them for himself . Perhaps not surprising all the women used negative descriptions to portray how they looked. For the next part of the project the group of women were introduced to one another and asked to make friends. They later described to the same sketch artist what their new friend looked like.When the two sketches were finished they were placed side by side and shown to the participants. As you can imagine there was a huge contrast in the images, with the strangers images being the most visually attractive of the pair. The campaign highlighted the fact that women are often very hard on themselves and find it hard to see beyond their self perceived flaws, when in actual fact a flaw could be their very source of beauty. The ad also challenges the women to try and see themselves the way others see them. It is important that we realize "beauty is more than skin deep, it is unique grace and confidence a shining light that sparkles thought the eyes and smile, its not what you physically look like its what you project"