BOBBI BROWN: Note To Girls Around The World, ''Smart Is The Real Pretty''.

 

I know first-hand that it is not always easy being a teenager -- especially a teenage girl.
In a world where there are so many unrealistic images of unattainable beauty all over the media, the pressure on young girls is overwhelming. Pictures of celebrities and models that are retouched or have been created by a team of makeup artists, stylists, photographers and editors give young girls a false ideal of what beauty should look like.

I wish as a young girl, I had understood that there is more than one way to be pretty, and more than one way to be smart. I want you all to know that the secret to true beauty is simply to be who you are.

I struggled with self-acceptance as a teenager. I was short and had dark hair, while all the popular actresses and models at the time were tall and blonde. Traditional school subjects didn't come naturally to me. I had to work really hard. The good news is that, with time, I found different role models and learned to appreciate and embrace my unique beauty. I also found a subject -- makeup -- that I loved and did come easily to me. So I finally learned to accept, and love, what made me unique. Self-acceptance to me is the key to looking pretty -- if you are happy being who you are, you will look your prettiest.

I spent a lot of time as a teenager trying to learn how to fit in. My wish for you, girls of the world, is to spend your time trying to learn. Stay in school. Sticking with school wasn't easy for me, but it eventually helped me to discover a theatrical makeup program at a college that gave me the tools and knowledge I used to launch my company. I use that knowledge every day.

Don't spend your time looking at unrealistic images of models and actresses in magazine ads. Spend your time reading the articles next to them about how other women and girls are changing the world.

Don't spend time staring in the mirror and questioning yourself. Don't pick apart the things you don't like about yourself. Instead, celebrate and enhance the things you love about yourself.

These things will make you smart, and if there is anything I have learned in the 20-plus years I have been in the makeup industry, it is that a smart girl is confident, and confident girls are pretty and powerful. And when you get a group of pretty powerful girls together, they're unstoppable.

xo,

Bobbi.