Jada Sezer

MODEL AND MENTAL HE ALTH ADVOC ATE

Every day, we are flooded with images of idealised beauty standards, of airbrushed bodies and flawless skin.

Everything we consume visually affects us. I have to stop and check myself, to remember I have the power to not accept. I love Instagram, but I’m searching for something real, not the heightened versions of aspirational dreams and best sound bites of life. Stretch marks, scars, wrinkles, blemishes – it’s all a part of us, our story and our skin. I’m trying to care less about things that do not matter. I wish I had had the ability to shake off that pressure when I was younger. You are much greater than a bland, beautyblended version that morphs you into the masses. Please, never believe your face is only worthy with a filter on it. The real value is in who you are, not who you aren’t. “Beauty lies between the lines and the colours of your skin,” my sister once told me. “You were never meant to be flat or flawless.” Don’t kill yourself chasing beauty. If it costs you your happiness, it’s too expensive.