3 Tips to a Healthier Self-Image & Choosing Your Beauty Icons

Most people have an appreciation for diverse forms of beauty. You may look nothing like Kim Kardashian or Lupita Nyongo, but you can still admire their beauty because it’s natural to admire beautiful ppl. It’s also natural to have a special type of admiration for ppl who look closer to you, and that is usually how people choose their beauty icons.

When does admiration become unhealthy?

I had a patient who had similar facial features to Emily Ratakowski come in requesting lip filler enhancement. By enlarging her lips she would be a bit closer to looking a little more like Emily Ratakowski, being that Emily had lips that were slightly fuller than hers. She chose to admire a beauty icon to which she had similar features to. I think it becomes unrealistic and unhealthy when a person wants to have cosmetic enhancements done to look more like a person they do not resemble in any way.

A certain amount of self-acceptance is key. This brings me to the popular saying

“Admire someone else’s beauty without questioning your own.”

Celebrating diversity

Unfortunately, the media doesn’t always portray diverse forms of beauty. This is why people are waking up and speaking out. They desire to see people who come in all shapes, sizes, complexions, hair textures etc. After all, beauty comes in all different forms and I'm here to celebrate diversity. It would truly be a boring world if we all looked the same.

“Nature has given us diversity.
We should embrace it because it’s what makes us stand out.
It makes us unique”

Diversity and inclusion in the media

Who is represented most in the media has a lot to do with what the society’s majority look like. It also has a lot to do with who advertisers are targeting with ads. Those in charge of creative projects, like movies and television series, often choose people who look like them for roles within their projects. At the end of the day, it’s their project and their choice of who gets representation. That being said, society doesn’t owe you anything, and it is ultimately your responsibility to develop a healthy self-image.

Why Celebrities aren’t the Best Role Models

When celebrities get cosmetic surgery or injectables done, they most often don’t admit it! This is another reason you should not be hard on yourself with the comparison game. Most often, celebrities will not be open and honest about their insecurities and what they did to improve their looks. They want the public to think that they were born that way. As a matter of fact, they may share the most personal details about their lives that are scandalous but will go to the extent to remain private about and deny cosmetic procedures. The most they may admit to doing is skin care treatments and lasers.

Media Self Image quote by Emily Dowe, PA-C Natural Injector

Choosing your Beauty Icons

This is why it’s essential for you to have healthy beauty icons that you can admire. Seeing people that look like you help you develop a healthier self-image and promotes self-acceptance. This is what inspired me to create this blog. My goal is to help you choose healthy beauty icons which reflect the characteristics of your appearance. This will allow you to develop a healthier self-identity.

Below are boards/categories which are organized according to:

Face shape
Ancestry/Race
Facial feature categories

You may choose to follow multiple boards based on the categories above. For example, if you have a square face you may admire Demi Moore or Zoe Kravitz. If you have delicate facial features you may admire Emma Watson. You may also appreciate people that are of the same or similar ancestry. There are endless possibilities and you can choose from many boards!

Face shape

Oval

Janelle Monae

Rachel McAdams

Naomi Watts

Heart

Kim Kardashian

Amanda Seyfried

Halle Berry

Round

Kate Bosworth

Cameron Diaz

Jennifer Freeman

Square

Zoe Kravitz

Demi Moore

Tessa Thompson

Oblong

Jessica Lowndes

Iman

Leona Lewis

Ancestry

African

Examples:

Horn of Africa- Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti

West Africa, Central African, & East Africa- Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Sudan

Southern Africa- Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe

Leila Lopes- Angolan

Lupita Nyong'o- Kenyan

Nyadak “Duckie” Thot- Sudanese

Liya Kebede- Ethiopian

African including Horn of Africa, West Africa, Central, East, and Southern Africa

Middle East/North-Africa/Western Asia

Examples:

North Africa- Egypt, Algeria, Libya

Middle-East/West Asia- Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey

Amal Clooney- Lebanese

Christine Solomon- Egyptian, Syrian and Lebanese

Bahar Soomekh- Persian (Iranian)

Middle Eastern, North African and West Asia.jpeg

European

Examples:

Mediterranean/Southern Europe- Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia

Western Europe- United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria

Northern Europe/Nordic-Scandinavian- Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway

Eastern European- Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania

Monica Belluci- Italian

Keira Knightley- English, Scottish, Welsh

Makin Akerman- Swedish

Mila Jovovich- Ukrainian and Serbian

European including Southern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe

Asian

Examples:

-East Asia- Japan, China, Korea,Taiwan

-South-East Asia- Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos

Shu Qi- Taiwanese

Lea Salonga- Filipina

Satomi Ishihara- Japanese

Gemma Chan- Chinese

Asian including East Asia and South East Asia

Indo-Aryan

India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Shristi Shrestha- Nepalese

Mahira Khan- Pakistani

Priyanka Chopra- Indian

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam- Sri Lankan

Indigenous people of the Americas

Of note, it was very difficult to find female icons who were close to 100% Indigenous in ancestry so some of the of the women shown here are only 1/2 or 1/3 Indigenous

Irene Bedard- Inuit and Cree

Tonantzin Carmelo-Tongva and Kumeyaay

Patricia Velasquez- Wayuu (Patricia is actually1/3 Indigenous)

Latina/Hispanic/Latin American

North America- Mexico

Central America- Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama

South American- Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Brazil

Caribbean- Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic

Jennifer Lopez- Puerto Rican

Maite Perroni- Mexican

Camilla Alves- Brazilian

The media often categorizes bi-racial or multi-racial people according to their minority parent. However this does not contribute to the healthiest self-identity or self-image, because you are not allowing them to embrace their full ancestry. Below you will find examples of boards for mixed or multi-racial people.