How can a woman who isn't what our culture typically considers "beautiful" learn to see herself as beautiful? A reader asked me that question recently, and I've been thinking about it ever since.
The truth is that most of us have been brought up to appreciate certain female attributes as beautiful and when we don't see those attributes in the mirror, we can't help but feel we come up short somehow. But I find it easy to see beauty in other people - even those who don't fit the standard cultural definition of what's beautiful.
It's all about the lens we look through.
Let me give you an example: I've got a friend who doesn't think she's pretty at all. But she's the most caring person I've ever met and when she asks me how I'm doing, her big dark eyes fill with genuine concern. She also has a great laugh - the kind of laugh that makes me laugh when I hear it - and she shares it liberally. Her face lights up when she laughs, and I see her beauty. Even when she doesn't.
