What Makes You Beautiful?

So there is this song that's kinda popular

It's called "What Makes You Beautiful"

It's likely you've heard it if you've turned the radio station to a pop/top 40 station in the past few months.

It's by One Direction- a British boy band... which if you ask me, being British is like the holy grail of boy bands. And then they go and record a song that every teenage girl (and some not-teenage girls) in the world has to love because it's talking about how this girl has just stolen away these boys' hearts and she doesn't even know she's beautiful.  Nooooo, I can't imagine why they are so insanely popular...

It's just a wonderful thing to think. "Some boy with a delightfully English name like (Zayn or Liam or Harry) and a lovely accent is totally in love with me and I don't even know I'm beautiful." It's quite possible that it's every girl's dream... to have a boy tell us we are beautiful when we don't think we are.

And the current pop song isn't the first time it's been sung about. I grew up on a country song called "She Don't Know She's Beautiful."  I think I made Nathan listen to the song once and then said, "I think that has shaped my idea of feminine beauty more than anything else. I want to be that girl."

But this ideal... of this modest yet stunning girl is one of those strange standards our culture has come up with that is completely unattainable. Over and over we are told that confidence is attractive in a woman. And then One Direction comes along and tell us that what makes a girl beautiful is that she doesn't know she's beautiful.  Wait.... what? How am I supposed to be confident and shy at the same time??

And *why* are you telling me I'm beautiful if the thing that makes me beautiful is that I don't know?! Now that I'm aware, am I ugly?

Both the One Direction song and the Sammy Kershaw song reference entire rooms of people stopping and staring as soon as the girl walks into a room.

Oh heck yes, we all (girls) want that to happen... but room-stopping-looks... that doesn't happen to a normal girl without some work. (which means they know they look good) .. and the girls it does happen to naturally generally know they are beautiful... and are trying to get model contracts.

Recently someone was asking me if a book screwed up my view on what relationships are supposed to look like... and I said no... but I think songs may have screwed up my idea of what a beautiful woman should be.

Aka, I don't have any ideals that I will force on you, but man do I have a laundry list of things that I should be.

Knowing or not knowing you are beautiful isn't what makes a girl beautiful.

Strength of character,
strength of will,
compassion,
kindness,
optimism,
a sense of humor,
intelligence
good genes (and good jeans!)

That's what makes you beautiful.