That’s right – feeling beautiful. It’s a choice just like any other you make about yourself, a personal power we all have the right to embrace. And yet even the most confident of us can shrink away from using that word. Whether it’s because we think it’s an accolade reserved only for supermodels, or we don’t think we fit the criteria, or we’re worried what people will think, it goes for most of us. Believe us, we know: we’ve scoured the globe to explore our relationship with beauty, self-esteem and body image. And it’s complicated.
Complicated, and more or less the same story everywhere. All around the world, women aren’t feeling confident in their own beauty. How many women told us they felt anxious about the way they look? Get ready for some disheartening stats: 61% in the US, 86% in China, 56% in India (where almost all of the women we spoke to agreed that every woman has something beautiful about her, but that often they don’t see it in themselves), a huge 96% in the UK, and 72% in Brazil. That’s a lot of high numbers that we believe should be much lower.
But we’ve realised something. We don’t have to wait for a new trend, or magazine, or person to come along and give us permission to start feeling beautiful. We’re women. We’re powerful. We can choose beautiful for ourselves. It’s not anyone’s right, but our own.
With this revelation in mind, we set out to create our new Dove video - we wanted to reach women everywhere and get a wider understanding of their views and opinions. So we visited five cities across the world - San Francisco, Shanghai, Delhi, London and Sao Paulo - to explore how different cultures influence the choices women make about their beauty and encourage them to always make positive ones. But most of all, we wanted to show them that every day, wherever they are, they have the power to wake up and make the choice to feel beautiful.
We know what you’re thinking. It’s easy to say, but believing it is a whole other thing. And you’re right. It’s still a long road. But this is the next step.
Choose beautiful. Start now.
