It never fails to hear criticism from everyday people. Take for example the shopping trip to the mall I had just the other day. It was gorgeous out so I put a little more effort into my outfit and put on a striking lip color, blue. I was looking for a new look that felt like me, and fell head over heels for the color. As I glanced in the mirror, I loved it even more and headed out to the mall. I felt so confident until I felt eyes of two ladies burning into my skull. Of course it had to be the lipstick and I dismissed it until I heard one of the women whisper to her friend “why would she come out the house looking like that? ” followed by some quiet snickering. I rushed to the dressing room to examine myself, only to find nothing was wrong.
“It must be the lipstick ” I thought, realizing that the only colors you see on people’s lips are either pink, red, or purple. I was different and that didn’t sit well with them. As I put a Kleenex to my lips to wipe off the beauty faux pas, I paused. Why should I change who I am or what I like for people I don’t even know & probably won’t ever see again? I took me 22 years to be comfortable in my skin and be confident enough to wear whatever I wanted. Why stop now just because it’s not someone else’s cup of tea? Everyone isn’t going to like you, or what you do. As long as your happy and proud of yourself everyone else can go suck it.
Reminding myself of that I wiped off the lipstick and applied a fresh coat of the same blue shade adding a shimmery glossary to make it stand out even more and walked out the dressing room head held high. As I continued shopping I said a polite hello and smile to the two ladies that laughed at me earlier. As I continued shopping through the mall I felt the eyes of hundreds of strangers fall upon me, this time however, I didn’t flinch or hide my lips in shame. I proudly smiled and wore my blue lipstick with pride. Finally happy with myself and needing no one else’s approval on my appearance I gained more confidence and self respect. Don’t mind what others say or do. No matter what you do someone is going to hate it. Everyone is different, everyone has different opinions of what’s beautiful and what they deem acceptable. So they’re going to talk, people love to talk! So you might as well give them a hell of a story.
