The Power of Pretty: Women should stand up against makeup shaming

By: Daphne Becker

Almost half of all women in the United States report they wear makeup every day from a survey done by Smartgirl.org, yet somehow in our society it has become common to shame girls who wear “too much” makeup by society’s standards.

Beauty YouTuber NikkieTutorials has left lots of people in awe of how she transforms her face using different colors, techniques and tools sharing her ideas for all to see on the Internet, but what a lot of people don’t see is the abuse she got for doing it.

All over the Internet, women are being makeup shamed for transforming their faces. Instead of being praised for the art they are able to do, they are called catfishes and told they are “tricking men” into thinking they are more attractive. Men are making jokes that you have to take a woman to the pool on the first date to see what she really looks like.

What people don’t see is how this can affect a girl’s self esteem. The comments are mean and hurtful and are trying to lead people away from something they might really enjoy.

NikkieTutorials took a stand against that when she made a video she titled, “The Power of Makeup.” The video is all about teaching women to stop being ashamed of enjoying doing their makeup if they do enjoy doing their makeup.

There are a lot of misconceptions on reasons of why women wear makeup. Some are that the only reason girls wear makeup is to impress guys, which might be partly true for some women, but for a lot, this isn’t the case. Another is that they are insecure about how they look and want to change it. What’s the real harm with that? If they want to take a little time out of their morning so that they feel more comfortable, then what’s the problem?