A Day in the Life of Me(lissa): Why does beauty have to be pain?

Guess what, all my dear readers?

Go ahead and do a little dance to celebrate.

Jimmy Fallon and Elmo can pull that dance off. Sadly, I can't dance....well. But I pretend I have sweet moves at weddings and any other places I might break out in song and dance.

Hey! I just realized my life is like High School Musical, except I can't sing or dance or both in coordination with each other or I don't end up with Zac Efron (serious tragedy if you ask me).

Okay, FINE. So my life is not like HSM at all. And surprisingly, I'm okay with that.

"We're all in this together?"

Tween-age Melissa might be like what?!?!

Now-age Melissa would rather watch Tangled. Thank you very much.

I about died watching this scene. (#sorrynotsorry if I spoiled the movie for anyone)

End of my digress, though.

Onto to today's topic. And to be honest and a fair warning, it's a bit controversial.

So anyone can't say I didn't warn them.

Another warning, the topic is overdone and cliché, but I don't care because the topic is so relevant in today's society.

"Beauty is pain"?

Growing up with my sister, I have learned a lot. One day she told me (in the most sisterly loving way possible with her), "Melissa, you have bushy eyebrows."

7th grade me believes her. And I foolishly let her experiment on my face. (All the girls out there with older sisters know what I'm talking about. Being a doll for them sometimes was not-so-awesome.)

I was flinching every five seconds as she plucked my "bushy" eyebrows. "Melissa, will you stop flinching!?" And I told her, "But it hurts!!"

And you know what she told me? "Beauty is pain, Melissa."

My exact reaction is, "Why is beauty pain?"

Some time later (aka five minutes later)....

Today's society version of beauty is warped. Society tells young girls that, in order to be considered beautiful, they need to look a certain way, weigh a certain amount but definitely not more than that, dress a certain way, make-up needs to look a certain way, act a certain way.

That is a lot to put on an eight-year-old girl. It's likely that she'll grow up believing she might not be enough.

She'll grow up not knowing that she is beautiful just the way she is. (Bruno Mars song reference unintended)

And that's just terribly sad. Really. It is.

Here are a few of the images that came up when I Google Image searched "beauty"

Now, you might be like, "but Melissa all this stuff makes me feel beautiful."

And my reaction? AWESOME. YOU DO YOU, GURL. All I hope for you is to realize that you are still beautiful without all that "stuff."

You got pimples? So do I. And so do "45 percent of women ages 21 to 30, 26 percent of women ages 31 to 40, and 12 percent of women ages 41 to 50, according to the study, conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital" according to this NYT article.

You got moles? So do I. So do most celebrities. Some are even recognized for their iconic moles. Need proof?

You got facial hair? So do I. And so do everyone (guys included!). It's nothing to be ashamed of.

You got a fat/cellulite? So do I. And you know what? It's heathy! (On the flipside, too much fat is a possible risk to your own heath and should be talked over with your doctor at your own discretion.)

The point of this post is that everyone has visual flaws. Some are more obvious than others. And it's okay if you want to cover them (just keep in mind, you are still beautiful without cover); it doesn't make you vain to feel good about the way you look.

Beauty is what you believe it is.

Beauty is feeling confident and proud about the way you look.

Beauty is YOU, being the awesome person that you are.

And now to address the male population, same goes to you. While I can't comment too much because you know, I'm a girl, I will say this much. You are amazing the way you are, too.