Beauty & Self Confidence

Me at age 6. Freckles and all!

I'm a big believer that inner beauty is much more important than outer beauty. Yes, I do love makeup but that's a choice that everyone makes for themselves and I don't wear it because I feel ugly on the outside. I wear it because I like it. I didn't always believe that inner beauty was more important though. For years I was obsessed with how I looked on the outside and it all started with my hair.


As you know, I have very curly red hair (and very light features). I absolutely love my red hair, but for many years I hated (I'm not using that word lightly) it. When I was in middle school people started making fun of me because of my hair. I got called "ginger", "carrot top", and people told me that I had no soul. I had never heard any of those jokes when I was younger, so obviously I was very confused by all of it. When I was a kid I was told by adults that my hair was so pretty and that I was so lucky to have red hair. I loved those compliments so much because, in a way, they made me feel special.

When people started making fun of me and talking about my hair in a negative way, I started feeling bad about myself and I just wanted to look like everyone else. People may not realize it, but those jokes can really impact someones self confidence and how they see themselves. I started to see myself as ugly and I started to point out all of my flaws. That mostly started after someone said to me, "Alison, you're just OK looking". After that, I couldn't stop comparing myself to everyone else and I saw myself as one big flaw. At one point I even had my eyebrows tinted and that was only because I saw them as another flaw.

It wasn't until about two years ago when I decided to embrace my red hair and to ignore any bad things that people said. I love it when people notice my hair and tell me how much they love it. I've had people come up to me and tell me to never do anything to it, some people have come up behind me and started touching my hair, and I've even been told that I look like Merida from the Disney movie Brave (who wouldn't want to be compared to a Disney princess). When I really started to embrace my hair, I realized that no one should have to feel bad about themselves just because of their hair color or any other characteristic that is different.

Even though I learned to ignore all of the negativity, that doesn't mean that it's easy for other people. Things like this can take years to get over. I'm still disappointed that people have found it acceptable to make fun of people for something about them that is unique. Being different is great and you should never have to feel insecure about yourself just because of some stupid jokes. I know that's easier said than done, but when you are able to overcome it all you feel much better about yourself. Also, never feel embarrassed to talk to someone about things like this, you never know how many other people could be going through the same thing.