Encouraging Positive Beauty Standards & Self Worth Through Social Media Platform

Growing up I was exposed and bombarded with advertisements, barbie dolls, and beauty products that indirectly defined how beauty is. Since birth, I have always had tan skin and I was chubby. I wasn’t embarrassed, in fact, I cherished and embraced it. But as I entered my pre-teenage years, it slowly took my attention that society might view me differently. It was a moment of realization when I saw influencers, and famous celebrities, even my close friends, who were always complimented because they all somehow fitted and looked a certain way. Everyday I see advertisements that interpret beautiful as pale and light skinned, with long & straight hair, skinny & tall, and have pointed noses. Examples of these advertisements express how tan-skinned females envy those with paler skin tones, promoting skin whitening products that will make those with darker skin tones feel beautiful and happy. As someone who has tan-skinned and a chubby figure, I felt the unfairness and pressure from society to look a certain way, and that the only way someone could compliment or call me beautiful was to fit those standards.

However, I am extremely grateful that our society has developed and has slowly turned our backs on toxic beauty standards. The insecurity and lack of confidence are being faced by a lot of people mainly teenagers who are in the phase of finding their identity and learning how society works. Therefore, for my Personal Project, my goal is to create a social media platform to share my experience and encourage others about positive beauty standards and lifestyle promoting wellness.

This is a highly challenging goal because it requires time and extensive research in order to encourage an audience. I also need to gather expert opinions, and contribute appropriate content in my platform in order to achieve the goal. I hope with this project, I will be able to successfully use my capabilities and my platform as a place to voice my feelings as well as to reach out to teenagers facing unrealistic beauty standards. I want to motivate them that we are in this together.

Global Context

The global context of my Personal Project is Identities and Relationships because this relates to how teenagers face reality in finding their identities and accepting the beauty standards set by society. It will also examine the effects of dealing with pressure and insecurity. I will be exploring specific strands such as identities, mental well-being, self confidence, societal pressure, and physical stress since it relates with the main idea of unrealistic beauty standards and finding yourself and your happiness in the midst of pressure and insecurity.

Product

My final product will be a personal blog in the form of a social media platform on Instagram. The instagram is entitled @yesbe.auty to reflect my goal of saying yes to beauty of all kinds. The platform will consist of content surrounding myself, sharing my experiences, personal stories, my favorite picks, tips and tricks, and encouraging quotes. It also includes videos from experts to encourage and further influence my audience about positive beauty standards, lifestyle and wellness, as well as the importance of self love. Through this platform, I hope the audience will be able to feel encouraged and moved to prioritize themselves, as well as getting educated in self acceptance. This platform will also benefit myself as everyday I am learning to accept myself as well as encouraging others to do so.

See my Instagram Platform!

Reflection

Looking back at my product, I have successfully met my goal, the goal of sharing positive beauty standards and encouraging others to be confident has been achieved by the variety of my content from reliable experts, my audience has also confirmed this through my reflection poll. I have learnt new skills and improved my existing skills to the better, from self management, thinking and creative skills, to social and communicating skills, facing frustration and challenges.I think the room for improvement for this product would be for me to widen the perspective, meaning having more guest speakers, more expert and inspirational speakers, I also realize my content was a bit too specific to Women Beauty Standards, I think It would have greater impact and a greater audience if I incorporated more men speakers, and men perspectives.

IB Learner Reflection

As an IB learner for 13 years, I have learned to always reflect and have room for improvement in everything I do. Through this project, I first want to congratulate myself for my hard work, dedication, and passion so that I would be able to achieve my goal. Moreover, I have used my Communication skills to effectively use my resources to communicate my goal, Risk-takers while facing challenges ahead, and being a Thinker to use my thinking skills in facing those challenges, and create decisions.