On Friday, Sept. 18, Timber Creek will be hosting a campaign known as “Project Beautiful.” While many students are excited about it, there are many who have concerns towards it.
One of the main concerns being that the project may be perceived to give off the wrong message to girls. The project was created to make girls feel more confident and beautiful. In order to get this message across, Student Council has asked that all girls come to school wearing no makeup. After hearing this, a large amount of girls had a completely different opinion towards the campaign.
Junior Hannah Mailhos loves the idea of trying to get girls to love themselves, but she finds the project to be a bit hypocritical.
“The project is telling girls not to conform to society’s version of beautiful — which is good — but then it tells them to conform to its version of beautiful,” Mailhos explained.
Other students, such as junior Abby Greiner, were shocked towards the campaign.
“The day is supposed to be about feeling beautiful, but what about women who feel beautiful with makeup on?” Greiner asked. “I don’t understand the idea that all women would feel more comfortable or more beautiful without makeup.”
Students like Abby and Savannah McLain agree that the campaign shouldn’t be focused on makeup but rather, “have a day that all women were encouraged to empower one another and just try and make each other feel good about how we look and who we are in general.”
In an interview with Talon Broadcast Reporters, organizer Briana Mendez said the goal of the project isn’t to be “against makeup.”
“I don’t want it to be a misconception that makeup is bad,” Mendez said in the video interview. “If it helps you feel better about yourself, great. Really we want girls to know that with or without makeup, you’re beautiful and the inside is more important than the outside. So, really, that’s what I want everyone to get out of this project.”
Many of the girls interviewed pointed out that they don’t wear makeup because they are insecure, but rather as an expression of their selves.
“Some girls just really like doing makeup,” Mailhos stated. When asked why girls wear makeup, Greiner responded with, “I think that traditionally, the idea of girls wearing makeup comes from a place of misogyny, the idea of a girl having to dress up to appeal to men or society’s standards of beauty. However; as time goes on, makeup has adapted for many girls into a fun and personal way to feel beautiful and confident.”
“The day shouldn’t be focused on whether a girl wears makeup or not to feel beautiful. I personally don’t wear makeup but that has nothing to do with how I feel about myself,” junior Savannah McLain said.
Overall these students do like the idea of promoting a girl to love herself, however they differ on the methods to show it.