Selena Gomez Speaks Out About Beauty Standards

Beauty standards, through media consumption and pressures from society, have contributed to poor mental health and self-esteem. From models to ordinary teenagers, beauty standards affect celebrities and non-celebrities alike. In 2022, the TV series “You Can’t Ask That” by ABC Television released an episode in which models explained how beauty standards have personally affected them.

@abciview "It's an unhealthy, unobtainable image that we're putting out." #YouCantAskThat #Models #BeautyStandards ♬ original sound – ABC iview

During a recent interview with Refinery29 Australia, Selena Gomez discussed how beauty standards have negatively affected her. She expressed that she felt pressure to look a certain way, and therefore sought to look like other people through makeup to fit societal standards.

Gomez, founder of the beauty brand “Rare Beauty,” has faced beauty standards that impacted her self-perception and witnessed how it affected those around her. Such hardships have motivated her desire to initiate mental health efforts, including launching the “Rare Beauty” brand in 2020, which yields 1% of proceeds to the Rare Impact Fund.

Following the newest release of the brand’s powder blushes and body care collection, she began to shed light on “Rare Beauty” and the brand’s efforts to spread positivity. Based on a report from the UK Parliament in 2022, 80% of survey respondents ranging from teenagers to adults agreed that beauty brands have contributed to a negative outlook on body image and mental health. However, Gomez explains how her brand’s purpose is to transform the negative perspective of makeup and create positive change.

“I wanted to change the way we talk about both beauty and mental health. I hope all of our products capture this ethos…My hope is that we all create a safe space to be ourselves, to be vulnerable, and to challenge unrealistic standards of beauty.” Gomez claimed.

With skin-loving ingredients and product names with uplifting words, such as “hope,” “encourage” and “worth,” Gomez aims for everyone to feel comfortable in their skin and know that instead of using makeup to cover imperfections, it can be used to accentuate the features unique to a person.

Happy Birthday @rarebeauty, thank you for speaking up against fake beauty standards and always showing how every single person is beautiful in their own individually!! 💗

Thank you @SelenaGomez for always giving this message of selflove and hopeness! ✨

STAY RARE✨ pic.twitter.com/TGLgNuT4PT

— Jorge ||☂️ (@selenatorswsel) September 3, 2022

Kyana Early (she/her) is a journalist from the San Francisco Bay Area who covers entertainment and culture.

Edited by Nykeya Woods