Do you see what I see?

Teenage hood brings about a variety of problems. Spots being one of them. Infinite amounts of revision being another. But one issue that intrigues me greatly is not something necessarily obvious to every young person in the world. Not everyone can see it or the effect it has on them and, more often than not, this confusing topic is only made apparent whilst being around our own friends.

Self image. What you see when you look in the mirror.

This year especially I have realised the impact this one small issue can have on an entire generation of young people. It has become obvious to me that a few of my closest friends have, in general, a very negative view of themselves at times. That’s not to say they have a bad self-image 24/7. I don’t think it works like that – everyone has their bad days. But what is very clear is that there is always something in the back of their mind that can affect not only their confidence but also how they treat other people, as well as themselves. ‘I’m not pretty enough.’ ‘I need to lose some weight.’ ‘She looks much better than me today.’

Recently I came across a video online which was linked to a beauty campaign for a popular soap brand. Upon watching this video I realised just how significant self-image is in everyday life. I immediately felt this campaign was not only extremely important, but could also be of great use to many young girls.

In the clip, an artist took a small number of regular women and asked them to describe their face and features to him in detail. He asked them a number of questions and drew what they described as they said it. He could not see them. He was drawing purely on what they said about themselves. Afterwards, the artist asked each of the women to complete the same process but for one of the other woman. All of them described the beauty of the woman they had just met.

The two drawings of each person (one of how they had described themselves, one of how someone else saw them) were very, very different. It highlighted how we as humans pick out the faults in ourselves, which most of the time are completely invisible to other people. The first drawing of each woman was harsh and full of imperfections. The second was full of natural beauty. The difference overwhelmed the women with emotions, and truly inspired me.

However, upon showing this to one of my friends one day, her response was not something I had considered: ‘Yeah, but that’s not always true’.

Although she completely understood the video and its purpose, she suggested that for some people what they think they look like is what they actually look like. She was talking about herself. No matter how many times she was told what she thought about herself was wrong and untrue, she couldn’t believe it – we were ‘just trying to make her feel better’.

So, what I want to know is, is there actually a way to get other people to believe in their natural beauty? Without being a professional, can you ever change someone’s self-image at all? Let me know. Is this negative view just fixed?