Recently I was talking to a friend about beauty standards and how everything around us is conditioned to see that beauty is only when you are blonde and light colored eyes.
I never gave it much thought because I am blondish (with highlights anyways) and green eyed. I never thought about representation when I saw a cartoon or a movie. I would see other influencers talking about this sort of thing but never could truly understand or identify with their feelings, because even though I am Latin, I don’t look like your typical latina girl.
But now that I have a daughter I see and understand what they mean. My daughter is a beautiful ray of sunshine, always smiling, just overall such a happy, out going baby girl, but she is not blonde and blue eyed, she is olive skin tone, brown hair and dark eyes, in my eyes she is pure perfection.
It still made me think about when she is old enough to watch TV and cartoons she is mostly not represented because most princesses and girls in general are depicted as being light colored hair and eyes. It has changed from my days obviously, has gotten better now that I look back and analyze it, but it has to change even more, specially in our culture where beauty is depicted differently.
I am glad my eyes are wide open to help raise my daughter as a strong, secure woman, seeing that al women of all types are beautiful, represented or not.
I wanted to share this piece just because I wanted to let you know, that I am sorry for not understanding before, for not putting myself in your shoes, understand, and walk with you in your journey.
All women and humans are beautiful if you have a beautiful heart, that is what truly shines and comes through. Lets all make a change together so we can raise amazing, strong, independent women.
