Beautiful Me: So much more than a makeover
Event helps teens discover their self-worth
A large room of the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert is filled with hairspray and giggles, as teens are given the glamour treatment by professional hairstylists, makeup artists and photographers at the Beautiful Me event.
However, Beautiful Me is much more than a free makeover. It’s a day designed for vulnerable, at-risk and deserving teens to discover their self-worth.
“We really wanted teens to get how important and how valued they are by their community,” says Sheila Chisholm, who founded Beautiful Me four years ago. This year’s event took place on Sunday.
Chisholm’s organization, Infinite Resources Inc., and the Plugged IN Community Centre Organization host the event.
In the bright room, the teens chat excitedly, exclaiming over their reflections in small mirrors held up by the professional stylists.
“If you look in the mirror, and you don’t love yourself, it’s really hard to get beyond your looks,” says Chisholm. “If that’s all you fixate on, how do you ever discover the inner beauty?”
Beautiful Me is designed to help teens accept themselves as a whole, and then spread that self-love to their community. The 26 attendees, including one boy, were each nominated by a mentor, friend or family member.
They were accepted based on a variety of factors, including having special physical needs, struggling with mental illness or addictions, or being influential members of their community.
After having their hair and makeup done by stylists, the teens disappear behind photo backdrops, where professional photographers conduct mini photo-shoots. After the event, the participants are given digital copies of all their photos.
But before they get styled, they must stop at a table covered in markers, pens and brightly coloured paper. They are asked to write a definition of beauty and an empowerment statement about themselves.
With dark curls pinned in a half-up hairstyle, 17-yearold Rachel Lamb says beauty is self-awareness. “Do your own thing. Don’t worry about other people.”
She says teens should respect each other and how they express themselves through clothes and makeup. She remembers organizing her makeup one night and finding silver cream eyeshadow and silver glitter, and putting it on her lips.
“They were poppin’! It looked so cool,” Lamb says. She was excited about wearing it, but was shocked at the negative response she got at school. She describes strangers bullying her in the hallways and in text messages. “And then I wore it the next day again. And I wore it three days in a row. And I loved it so much.”
She says beauty also means strength, something she’s learned from her mom, who has multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair. “You didn’t even know you could be that strong. You think there’s a limit but there’s no limit.”
Another attendee, Grace McGuire, was nominated for Beautiful Me by her mom. “I went through some really hard times with self-confidence,” she explains.
To McGuire, beauty is being a good friend. “I think that each girl should just compliment someone else once a day, just to make another person feel good about themselves.”
She feels most confident when she thinks about the support of people who love her. “Everybody’s beautiful in their own way. Even if you don’t think that you are, somebody thinks that you are.”
McGuire sits tall as her makeup is applied by volunteer Rebecca Nantel.
Nantel is a makeup artist who has volunteered with Beautiful Me for the past three years, and now acts as the makeup co-ordinator.
“Beauty in girls is such an issue, no matter where you go,” says Nantel, explaining that teenagers are bombarded with confusing messages from social media and popular culture.
“It’s been an emotional day. It breaks my heart for some girls to not be able to take a compliment or to have so much self-hate. I hate that. It’s so detrimental.”
Nantel hopes the teens think back to the event when they’re feeling low in the future. “I wish that they could see themselves the way we see them.”