They called her plain.
Not because she lacked beauty, but because the world had already chosen its definition of it. The kind found in glossy magazines, flawless screens, and filters that erased pores and humanity alike. Beauty, they said, was the girl with the hourglass body, glass-skin glow, perfect nose line, and lashes curled like fairy-tale ribbons. Anyone outside that mold was a before-photo waiting to be “fixed.”
She was the stepsister of our modern world, not living in castles or sweeping cinders, but scrolling through feeds where beauty was edited, curated, and sold. She saw girls her age shrinking themselves to fit trends, chasing validation in hearts and comments, believing worth was measured in symmetry, skin tone, and sizes stitched on clothing tags.
She learned early that mirrors could wound. A glance was enough to hear the voices society had planted.
“Lose weight.”
“Lighten your skin.”
“Fix your flaws.”
“Be more like her.”
So she avoided reflections, not because she hated her face, but because the world had taught her to. She covered the front camera with her thumb when it flipped by accident, deleted photos she once smiled in, and filtered herself into someone she no longer recognized, just to be seen as acceptable.
Yet she found beauty outside the frame.
In the girl with acne who smiled with confidence anyway.
In the boy who wore thrifted clothes with pride.
In the mother with stretch marks that mapped the story of life.
In hair that frizzed under humidity and laughed at the idea of perfection.
Still, comparison clung to her like a curse.
One night, she came across a cheap glass slipper online; an ad promising transformation: “Look like your favorite influencer in 7 days!” It was a modern fairy tale. Buy this. Use that. Become beautiful. She imagined squeezing herself into society’s version of beauty— uncomfortable, fragile, and damaging at the edges.
Suddenly, she understood:
The slipper wasn’t magical.
It was marketed.
Beauty had been turned into a business, and insecurity was the currency. The world didn’t want her to feel beautiful, because confident girls don’t need to buy anything to become whole.
So she lifted her head and faced her unfiltered reflection— raw, real, and alive. For the first time, she felt the quiet truth that had always been hers.
Maybe she wasn’t the ugly one.
Maybe the standards were.
So she told everyone, “Beauty is not defined by how we look, but what we do. It is not about what's on the outside, but rather what's on the inside. So, chin up and walk gracefully, because confidence starts by accepting who you are.”
Written by Zaynah Jane Bayron, Insight PH
Zaynah Jane Bayron, Insight PH is a dedicated campus journalist and contributor. Their insightful writing sparks meaningful conversations and keeps the community informed.
