What Is Beauty?

I am so impressed with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o's speech about beauty. Many people think becoming more beautiful is the answer to their problems. They think, "if only I was more beautiful then I'd get a boyfriend/land my dream job/have more friends/be popular/and so on. Basically, "be happier than I ever thought imaginable." I admit I've been guilty of thinking this way. Women spend thousands of dollars on creams, makeup, hair dye, razors, waxing, and more, yet always want more. It's never quite enough and we keep falling short of what we want to look like. People spend so much time focusing on what they look like on the outside when what their focus should be is what they look like on the inside. We need to teach our children that kindness, compassion, and love are priceless and nothing can compensate for a poor character. Beautiful is what your soul should be, not your face.

"My mother used to tell me, 'You can't eat beauty. It doesn't feed you." These words bothered me, and I didn't understand what she meant until I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume. It was just a thing I had to be. And what my mother meant when she said, 'You can't eat beauty," is you can't rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion. For yourself, and those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul." -Lupita Nyong'o'