Making sense of what is beautiful

Recently in my English class, we read the novel “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See. In the book, the main character lives in 19th century China and is required to bind her feet in order to attain beauty for her future marriage.
We discussed how society perceives beauty and the teacher assigned an exploratory essay on our opinions within the topic of beauty. This is my essay:
Mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all? A sickening classic line if you really think about it. When looking in the mirror, all that’s seen is physical looks, and those definitely don’t define who you are. As a person there’s more than a mirror reflection that resembles yourself. And then there’s the second part of the sentence, “who’s the fairest of them all.” Why does someone have to be better than another? And why should someone care to compare themselves? Because aren’t we all human? As humans, we’re so used to the ideas surrounding us; we sometimes forget to question where they came from. What even makes your reflection “pretty” or “ugly”. Unfortunately, most teenage girls these days don’t like what they see when looking in the mirror, but why?
Growing up, I was definitely a princess/Barbie type girl. Watching Cinderella and playing with Barbies were my ‘go-to’s. And I honored any Disney princess I saw as a beautiful being. I wanted to be a princess just like all those characters in the movies. Because if I was a princess, that meant I was beautiful, nice, lived in a palace, and had a prince charming. The only success I saw in life was if you were a beautiful Princess. If you asked me why Cinderella was beautiful when I was 5, I would probably say in a sassy attitude, “Well, she’s a princess!”
But where did this sense of princesses being beautiful come from? From what I can tell — society. Imprinted into my innocent, cheerful brain of a 5-year-old was the idea of beauty. Except soon those princesses, were actresses on television, and then models famous for the way they looked. Unique faces with distinct features like big eyes or high cheek bones, stick thin long legs, and non-frizzy manageable hair was constantly advertised as “beautiful.” And if you didn’t have those features? If you had eyes “too small” for your nose, foreheads “too big” for your face, lips “too thin” for your teeth- well my friend, you were unattractive. You could be the kindest, most gracious, humble, considerate, respectful, and smartest girl, but considered “ugly.” Or maybe you think of yourself as “ugly.”

There’s an apparent science behind beauty, believe it or not. Symmetry in the face is crucial for attractiveness. Beauty also dates back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece where well-known figures like Cleopatra and the Greek goddess Aphrodite were respected for their beauty. However, as time progressed society promoted more ‘beauty’ that just isn’t as beautiful. When teenage girls are so caught up in the concept that they need to look a certain way in order to be successful and happy that they form eating disorders, is that worth our value of ‘beauty?’ Starvation, purging, binging. As humans how do we develop desires to do that? And how do we pay thousands of dollars for someone to put us at risk of death so they can attempt to make us more beautiful?
Is the blame on us? Is the blame on what we commercially promote? My grandmother used to always say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Quickly assumed to mean that it depends on the person to think whether something has beauty or not. But what if the beholder is society?
As a society, how do we allow the promotion of ideas causing teenage girls worldwide to have negative body images? Because only a few proportions are acceptable, only a few looks, a few styles, a few personalities. Whatever happened to every human being beautiful in their own way? Think back, to whoever told you what was beautiful. Now at the age where we want independence, we should be able to have our own opinions on beauty. We shouldn’t let society define it for us. We are our own beholders. We are the future of society. And we are all beautiful.