North Of Beautiful Research Paper

I read once that in today’s day and age over 50% of girls starve themselves to lose weight. Why do they do this? Because they’re trying to fit into society’s definition of Beautiful. Beauty goes deeper than that, as Justina Chen in her novel North of Beautiful defines it: “beauty - real everlasting beauty - lives not on our faces, but in our attitude and our actions. It lives in what we do for ourselves and for others”

We as humans were told from a young age that you had to be a size 0 to be beautiful. You had to have blonde hair and blue eyes, and you should always know and keep up with the everyday fashion. Everyone strives to look like the models on the cover of their favorite magazine, or their favorite Hollywood star. Society tells everyone from the moment they’re born that they must fit into this stereotype to go far in life, and to be “beautiful”. If someone doesn’t fit into these categories for some reason they are outcasted. These outcasted people aren’t given the time of day. People judge others without even knowing a person, and these judgements are made on appearances. People are put into categories based on how they are perceived by a particular person. There’s more to a person than what’s on the outside though.

But what actually is beauty?

What is this inanimate thing people are trying to achieve? To me beauty comes from not what you look like, but what qualities a person possess that stand out. Beauty is when someone is able to laugh at their mistakes and learn from troubling times. Beauty is being able to accept the fact that you’re not perfect and be able to accept your flaws. With all the negative people in today’s world that’s a blessing, because there will always be someone telling you you aren’t good enough or you’re not pretty enough to do something that you have your mind set on. Ignore them because you are beautiful! You are good enough to do

anything!
There’s this woman that comes through the drive-thru at my work all the time and the first thing people notice or comment on is that she’s “beautiful” but they’re never able to tell me why they think she’s beautiful. To me she is beautiful and it’s not just because of her looks, it’s because of her character. When she was in High School she was in a very bad car accident which caused her to lose her fingers on one arm and her whole hand on another. I can’t imagine the pain that this woman went through both during and after the accident, because she didn’t fit into society’s idea of “beautiful”. She didn’t let that stop her though. Even with her disability she drives, she even has a job at a Hospital, but what makes her beautiful to me is that she is strong. She went through a very tough time and came out stronger than she was before. She is one of the kindest people I know, and she doesn’t let what people think of her and her “beauty” stop her from doing what she wants to do in her life. She’s the perfect example of what beauty is and she’s a role model to me and hopefully to anyone else who knows her story.
If everyone went through life the same way this woman did none of us would have anything to worry about. Who cares what you look like? Who cares how you dress? You’re dressing for you not for them.
In Justina Chen’s novel “North of Beautiful” she creates a character named Terra. The novel follows Terra’s quest to find out what true beauty actually is. Terra is your average tall, blond high school student, but everyone only sees the port-wine stain on her left cheek. Terra has never liked her face and has gone through many unsuccessful surgeries to try and get rid of her birthmark, so she wears makeup to cover it up. Terra finally realizes that beauty isn’t just on the outside, but it’s in your attitude and actions. She realizes this while visiting an orphanage in China, and there she sees a little girl who also has a port-wine stain on her face, but cowers from shame just like Terra. That day Terra realized what true beauty actually is. She decided not to care if people noticed her “imperfection” she decided to embrace herself for who she is, so she went to the nearest bathroom and washed all of her makeup off. She then walked back out to that little girl and pointed between her birthmark and the little girls saying “Hao Kan” (beautiful). Accepting yourself for who you are is one of the most rewarding things in this world and Justina Chen’s character Terra did just that.
In her post “Confidence is Beautiful” Suzanne Fetting said, “External beauty has an expiration date. When we are 65 years old, we will all look pretty much the same.” In other words be smart, be weird, be creative or fearless we can’t go through life worrying about what others think about us. We were put on this Earth to live so live everyday the way you want. Because doing what you want and love and being someone you’re proud of is the most beautiful you that there could ever be.