why fit in when you were born to stand out?
As I got older, I never wore makeup unless it was for a show or dance recital. I was going through the phases of being a tomboy if you will. My hair always in a messy bun, t shirts and basketball shorts with mismatched socks. That was my daily uniform outside of school. While during school I had to follow a strict dress code being that I went to a private school. Aside from wearing the required uniform, it was also mandatory that you follow the dress code rules which meant no nail polish, no makeup, and no heavy perfume. I didn’t mind so much; I was well disciplined and followed the rules. I never questioned or tested the rules. Except for when I was in the 8th grade (read more: do i have your attention?)
On my 13th birthday I was gifted my first real makeup set, a neutral eye shadow pallet, black eyeliner and black mascara. At first I was so excited, I finally had my own makeup to experiment with instead of using my mom or my sisters makeup. I later found out that the girl who gave me this gift, who I thought was my friend, actually gave me this makeup because she thought I should be more pretty and be more girly otherwise boys will never like me. I tried not to let it bother me, I knew I was one of the poor unfortunate souls who had to experience an awkward phase but believe me I am a better person now because of it. My young, naive, thirteen year old self thought - well this is the age where things start to change so it only seems right that as much as I was changing maybe my look needs to change as well.
WRONG!
Learn from this lesson – you never have to change your appearance to please someone else. Do what makes you feel good and confident. I didn’t learn this until much later in life, but that’s when I realized makeup is not meant to be a mask to hide who you are just to pretend to be someone you’re not. Makeup is meant to enhance the already existing beauty a person has and for me well its also art, a craft, an experiment that I enjoy doing.
When I was younger I constantly tried to look a certain way to make sure I followed the guidelines of what it meant to be a girl and tried to look the way other girls looked but in all honesty I always knew I was different. I never liked being different because being different meant you were standing out from everyone else and I was the type of introvert where I would much rather blend in or hide to avoid any sort of comments/bullying/negativity.
As I got older my mentality changed tremendously. I started to live by the motto “why fit in when you were born to stand out?” – Dr. Seuss. I accepted that I am my own person, I am unique and beautiful in my own way. I live by this message so much so that now I don’t like to do what everyone else is doing, in fact I usually do quite the opposite, especially when it comes to following trends. I found that with makeup their will always be trends but the beauty of being an artist is that I can constantly create new looks and even be the person that starts a trend, instead of following them.