Building The Confidence

In my sociology class we learned about in-groups and out-groups. In-groups are any group of people that share the same interest and approve of each others actions. Out-groups are any people who the in-group likes to reject, make fun of or who they just don't approve. There are deeper explanations that I could go into but for right now but I won't as it isn't necessary. The more time passes the more I realize that media is becoming an impossible in-group to join. You see it everywhere. In magazines, on Youtube, Tumblr. Anywhere that can be manipulated by the media will be. And the more we try to fight it the less it seems that our messages are being heard.
                               

 The people we see on our magazine don't even look like themselves! Photoshop, though really cool is altering our beliefs on beauty. Beauty isn't something that you can even fit in a box. There are so many more layers than what you look like that determine your beauty. That definition changes by culture and location. It is sad to see that Americanized version of beauty is bleeding into some many other cultures, and in some places girls are bleaching their skin to fit into these molds.

To me, molds are meant to be broken. Nothing should be a cookie cutter version of another. Everyone is inately different. You will never met someone like you in the world because everything fluctuates. There will never be another 19 year old Cielo, typing this blogpost in the library of her college at 2:30 pm instead of being in her Organic Chemistry class in the year 2014.

I wish there was more diversity in my social media feeds. I want people of different races, sexual orientations, sexes, social classes, sizes and religions on my Youtube subscription list. I want beauty gurus and fashion blogs from other countries to gain more recognition for the work. And most of all I want the originality that can only come from these differences to shine through. Being biracial I can say that having different points of views, and beliefs is a wonderful experience. Being able to pick and chose what you do and why is empowering. Having these types of resources are important and I hope that more young girls step up to plate and shine.
xoxo

Cielo

"We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion."