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Home : Your emotions : Body image and eating disorders : Young women's thoughts on body image : Real beauty comes from the heart (text-only version)

Real beauty comes from the heart (text-only version)

 

Photograph of a young African American woman

Opening the magazine page, I don't see a reflection of myself.  I see portions of women with flat stomachs and PERFECT figures.  After all my life wondering why I can't be a model, and becoming filled with self-hatred, anger, and DOUBT, it HAD to stop.  When I look in the mirror, I don't see Tyra Banks or Niki Taylor.   I see me, a beautiful, intelligent, wonderful young woman.  My brilliance shines from the inside, from my heart.  Although I don't see shiny magazine pages printed with thin MADE-UP COMPUTER-EDITED WOMEN,  the reality of my face and body is more beautiful than that any day.  I reflect a life full of experience, full of love and anger, and my beauty overpowers a room, not just the magazine page.

Content last updated March 28, 2008

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health.

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