Merriam Webster defines beauty as “the quality of being physically attractive.”

Attractive is defined as having a pleasing appearance.

I was flabbergasted by that definition. You hear it all the time, people calling others beautiful, which usually means they’re complimenting their physical appearance. However, do we even look at someone being internally beautiful? Or are we in a society where you have to live up to expectations and be physically attractive?

I think everyone has their own definition of beauty. However, I think people lie a lot more with their definition. I hear all the time that “it only matters what’s on the inside.” Time and time again we see people judge a book by a cover.

Last year in my AP Spanish class we had to conduct a survey about beauty.

My group found some interesting results when analyzing the data. I found it interesting that when it came to the question “do you find yourself beautiful?”, the majority did find themselves beautiful, though many men responded that they weren’t beautiful, while women thought of themselves as internally beautiful.

In today’s society, we have so many insecure teenagers who don’t see themselves as beautiful, which makes me want to cry. Why does society tell us who is or who isn’t beautiful? When I did Economics for Leaders, we did an activity called power walk where you would step forward if a statement was true for you. One of the statements was: “I think I’m attractive.” There were 34 teenagers in that room and not a single person stepped forward.

I find it really sad that people don’t see themselves as attractive or beautiful. I think a big problem is that people compare themselves to others. I have tried so hard lately not to compare myself, because no one is Hayley Gorman; I’m unique and no one is just like me.

Going back to the survey. When it came to the multiple choice questions, the majority of responses dealt with internal beauty. However, when it came to the open-ended questions, only 1/15th of males mentioned internal qualities, while for females it was close to 50/50. So what does that mean?

In my interpretation, it means that people don’t want to admit they find physical attraction more attractive than internal beauty. If we look at it more, you notice someone if they are attractive, then we take the time to get to know them. Is it sad that we judge someone before taking the time to get to know them? It’s just like “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” Even though we hear that cliché statement time and time again we still do it, especially when we judge people.

I guess the important lesson we can learn from this is that everyone has their opinion on beauty. We get caught up trying to be someone’s definition of attractive. Girls pile on make up and people spend money on the best clothes and try to make everyone feel beautiful. In reality, everyone is insecure. Some people don’t show it, others do. People try to cover up their flaws, but those flaws make a person who they are. In my opinion, I don’t try to live up to societal norms. I wear makeup maybe three times a year. I wear the same style of clothes every week. I never steer myself in another direction.

Everyone is beautiful. I think that people need to hear that more. I give you a challenge to tell someone they’re beautiful, but tell someone you barely know, because it speaks volumes. I did an activity where everyone had to say one word about me and I got the word beautiful. I think on that piece of paper that is my favorite word. When it came to my two best friends, I said beautiful inside and out. That’s my favorite compliment: beautiful inside and out.

Don’t try to be someone who you aren’t. Be yourself. The best advice I can give, is tell yourself that you are beautiful. Everyone is beautiful and it is important to feel beautiful. Don’t let anyone’s words put you down. You are beautiful.