When asked what makes you beautiful would you immediately state physical attributes like your hair, or your figure? Would you look at yourself in a mirror and pick your eyes or your smile? What if you were blind? How would you describe beauty without the help of a mirror? How should any of us really describe beauty?
Dove is notorious for ad campaigns that empower women and encourage positive thoughts on inner and outer beauty. Most recently Dove has launched an ad in their Swedish market that encourages women to view beauty as a feeling instead of a physical descriptor. The commercial features three blind or visually impaired women who describe when they feel beautiful. Instead of answering when I wear makeup, or when my hair looks good, they all answered similarly with when they feel happy.
This ad spoke numbers to me, as someone who is sighted, to how I define beauty myself. Like the women in the commercial I have found that I feel most beautiful when I achieve something that I have worked hard for. When I feel accomplished, either in school or at work is when I feel best.
It is important for all people, women and men, to embody beauty. Whether blind or sighted this carries over into the work force. Beauty embodies confidence, success, positivity, and hard work. All of these are traits found in a work place. So it is important to remember that when you are confident and working hard with a positive mindset, that is when you should feel most beautiful. Even outside of the work environment beauty is reflective of emotions. When you’re dancing, or laughing, or simply happy are true beautiful moments. Beauty is reflective and achieved by actions and feelings and is not based upon physical attributes.
Remember that Beauty is not to be seen…but to be felt and understood.