Article August 6, 2001 Issue

There's a lot of beauty in you

Stop leaving yourself out!

By Suzanne Vale

WHEN I WAS a little girl, what I looked like was of very little importance. Being a bit of a tomboy, climbing trees, boxing with my brother, enjoying the outdoor life, seemed quite normal—to me, anyway.

That is, until one day when a remark changed all this. A relative, who, in my opinion, should have loved me unconditionally, said to me after I'd been out for a walk, "You look a mess—so ugly. Isn't she ugly?" She said this in front of another relative, who was quite shocked, to say the least.

This remark stayed with me for a long time, along with the thought that to be loved, you had to be beautiful. So, as I grew older, I saw makeup as my savior, and was often sent out of class to remove it and to wash the color out of my hair! This did not change anything, because having taken that one remark so to heart, I felt that if I wasn't "painted" even a little bit, I was ugly, and hence unloved and unlovable.

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