Only 11% of girls comfortable using the word “beautiful” to describe themselves.

Dove reports that according to its global research, only 11% of girls worldwide are comfortable using the word “beautiful” to describe themselves.  Even worse, when girls feel bad about their looks, more than 70% avoid normal daily activities, such as attending school, going to the doctor, or even giving their opinion.

Feeling “beautiful” has come to mean feeling good: comfortable, powerful, competent.

Girls learn very young that the main way they have value and interact with the world is through their appearance. We can do a better job intervening.

Here are some tips on what you can do right now.

3 thoughts on “Only 11% of girls comfortable using the word “beautiful” to describe themselves.

  1. I make sure to tell my 5 year old daughter that not only is she beautiful, she is smart and funny too. She knows she is beautiful and also sees beauty in those around her, wanting to make them as confident as she is.

  2. One of the factors involved with this is probably the way we are taught from a very, very early age that it is utterly unacceptable to “toot your own horn” or otherwise show that you think well of yourself. My guess is that more than 11% of the girls surveyed did consider themselves beautiful, but they knew on a gut level that _saying_ you think you’re will prompt attacks by your peers as they attempt to drag you back down to where you “ought” to be.

    I’m 41, and at this point I feel stronger, healthier, and more attractive than I ever have in my life. But when I imagine saying the words “I am beautiful” out loud, even if it’s just in front of the bathroom mirror with nobody around… huge resistance comes up. “Omigod what if somebody hears you? You can’t say that!”

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