I Changed My Face for $3.95

It was a late night a few weeks ago and I was flipping through Netflix to find something interesting to watch.  I came across Chelsea Handler Does … The Silicon Valley.  If you haven’t watched it, do, because it is really well done.   

I know that more technology is inevitable, but how is that changing the way we look at ourselves and each other? In the Chelsea Does Series, Khloe Kardashian was one of the people invited over to Chelsea’s house to talk about technology.  

Kardashian and Leah Remini started talking about an app called “FaceTune” and called it “life changing”. Chelsea protests and says she doesn’t agree with erasing your face, and Khole’s response was, “It’s not real. You are presenting to the world what you want them to believe.”  I had to check it out.  

I paid the $3.95 to download the app that was being raved about from one of the most followed people on Instagram with 25 million followers. In a moment, I understood why they had referred to the app as life changing, because I changed my entire face with this app.  

With this app you can swipe and erase wrinkles, teeth stain, blemishes, dark circles, track marks, whatever you got they have something that can erase your “imperfection”.  In addition to changing all things aforementioned, I also made my eyes bigger, face more narrow, cheekbones higher, and shrunk my forehead.  

To write this blog, I put it to the test and posted it on facebook to see what the response would be.  And it blew me away!  I got way more comments below on how beautiful I looked and likes then I normally do when I post a selfie.  I’m not trying to say that I think I’m hideous because I’m not, but when I started to look at the original picture and think, “Oh shit, do I need to start handling some aging shit?”

That’s when the meat and potatoes of the ripple effect of how apps of photoshopping create an unrealistic expectation of beauty and aging.  I can’t shrink my head, I have brains in it.  I don’t want to erase my wrinkles because don’t want to forget the life that created them. I love drinking coffee and it stains my teeth, but life is supposed to be lived and enjoyed like a cup of joe in the morning after a night of great sex.

What happens when we start to erase and change everything is that we are not loving what is, right now, as you are, which is perfect and beautiful.  We all know photoshopping goes on literally all the time, but yet, we still feel the pressure to be perfect.

If we are constantly nit picking, editing, deleting, reshaping, contouring, fixing, then we are always saying I’m not good enough the way I am.  And who holds women to this standard of perfection of blow outs, nails, wrinkle free perfection? Women.
We are constantly comparing ourselves to a fake and unreal standard and then holding other women to the same standard!   She’s fat, she’s old, she’s ugly, her hair sucks, this bashing attitude is always geared toward how the woman looks.  This is attitude that we are participating in and how is that affecting women as a whole, and  especially young women.  

We do not need make-up all the time to be beautiful.  You don’t need to glam out your hair to be beautiful.  You don’t need to be half way naked to be beautiful.  All you have to do to be beautiful is be YOU.  You know what attracts most men or partners?  Confidence.

It’s not your boobs, eyes, killer eye liner, it’s your confidence.  You can be the hottest person in the world and if you aren’t confident, smart, funny, people will get bored of you.  Also, if we are basing our self-worth off of solely our looks, then what does the future hold for you?

I am making an oath to not contribute to this photoshopped false reality of beauty.  Won’t you do the same and start changing the dialogue that women are not just pretty things to look at, but that we are capable, smart, funny, determined, lighthearted, and all these other multi-dimensional aspects that we have as woman.  That we don’t have to erase our face to be beautiful. We can just be ourselves.

Loving your beautiful soul wherever you are on your path.  

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