What Is Beauty? What is ‘Normal’?

girl redhead

I would like to begin to look at my physical self as the new ‘normal’.

The media, magazines, television, celebrities, dentists, beauty ‘experts’ share opinions of a smile that is similar to mine needing fixing. The would view my ‘imperfect’ teeth as not nice and not attractive.  I feel after much self introspection I have perfect teeth. I have perfect teeth for me.

For me, I am wanted to not only accept my smile as the new ‘normal’ for me, but that, ‘goofy, buck teeth, gummy smiles’ are not unnatural, not ugly, not unattractive, but beautiful.

How could they not be? they are a part of me and I am equal to everyone on this planet, there is no other person like me anywhere in the universe.  So while the entire western world wants me to hate my appearance by telling me to fix it I am shouting out – this is my ‘normal’ get used to it!

Kelly Martin Smiling
 
I wrote this blog feeling slightly angry as I had been hating my smile for over 30 years it was time to say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”.

The whole beauty industry is killing women and men everywhere with its interpretation of beauty, of normal, and I am here to SHOUT normal is ‘whatever IS’ for every individual!

I look in women’s magazines and on TV and many celebrity smiles are becoming so artificial, everyone has the same teeth.  They have the same shape, the same colour, where is the unique smile all these women and men were born with?

Who told them or us that to have uneven, unstraight, teeth or gums shown is ugly or unattractive?  I am astonished how many people are not questioning the brainwashing we in the Western world have received regarding our appearance.

Before I went to high school I thought nothing of buck teeth, to me they were my ‘normal. It was not until a playground bully called me goofy and another boy called me goofy that I started to feel extremely self conscious about my appearance.  The same bullies called me lanky because I was tall and so for many years I walked hunching my shoulders.  I now walk tall and straight, making the conscious decision to pull my shoulders back.

Somewhere inside those bullies they were brainwashed to think uneven teeth were wrong or ugly.  They were not born with that opinion, someone told them this.

When I was a young teenager, I was given a brace by my dentist to straighten even goofier teeth. They straightened them for a short while, but over time into my adult years, they slipped back, and due to dental costs as an adult I did not get them fixed.

In the past my my conditioned mind had been screaming at me “get them fixed! Find a way, any way”.  Needless to say I could not see a way to do this  so I was faced with did I struggle and stress and feel the shame of not having the ‘perfect smile’ or did I look at myself, really look at myself and see what beauty really is?

I chose to look at what beauty really is.

What physical attributes did you used to hate and now see them as a blessing? How does the beauty industry make you feel?

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Kelly Martin
Kelly Martin

Kelly Martin, author of ‘When Everyone Shines But You’ is a dedicated writer and blogger who fearlessly explores life’s deepest questions. Faced with a decade of profound anxiety and grief following the loss of her father and her best friend Michael, Kelly embarked on a transformative journey guided by mindfulness, and she hasn’t looked back since. Through her insightful writing, engaging podcasts, and inspiring You Tube channel Kelly empowers others to unearth the hidden treasures within their pain, embracing the profound truth that they are ‘enough’ exactly as they are.

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5 Comments

  1. April 22, 2011 / 7:32 pm

    You are BEAUTIFUL exactly how you are!

  2. April 27, 2011 / 8:18 pm

    Thanks Jennifer, its starting from inside. xx

  3. Anonymous
    October 4, 2011 / 12:21 pm

    I LOVE this I have just started to smile in pictures and show my teeth, I always felt ugly or not 'normal' because I got called about my teeth, I had a Retainer but I lost it. I have never been back and so I still have 'goofy' teeth but I think to my self well this is how I was made to look so why change it? The thing that makes me made is that the one little 'imperfection' makes me not confident with myself at all and I shy away from new people.

  4. Anonymous
    October 4, 2011 / 12:22 pm

    mad*

  5. March 31, 2013 / 3:55 pm

    Not sure if I have seen this post before. My teeth sure ain't perfect, lol. I don't have much time for either women's magazines, celebrity magazines, or even men's magazines for 'new men' or whatever the term is. True beauty has to come from within first. Obviously there's nothing wrong with looking good as well, but western society has pushed looks to the front of the queue. I have never really understood why people would think of being super thin as attractive.
    The loss of connection with nature and with the heart is, I guess, partly to explain for this. But there can be no excuse for Cheryl Cole to be seen as a 'national treasure' or whatever pedestal put her on. She is not all that worth it.

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