The Hampton Script

Kailah Lee | Staff Writer

In a world full of Instagram baddies, bundles and beat faces, being natural can come as a task.

Not only do jobs require you to look “professional” and “neat,” but so does society. It’s nearly impossible to be the real you. You would think that being natural—whether that means wearing your natural hair or just rocking a bare face—would come easy, but it doesn’t. Call it a double standard or call it unfair, but that’s just the way it has always been.

Women, particularly black women, must put their best foot forward or they’re not seen as good enough. It’s daunting but it’s a necessary evil we must often comply with to maintain comfort in our daily lives. So many women feel they always need to look their best, but little do they realize, they’re already born that way.

“One of the best feelings in the world is kicking off the heels, letting the hair down and grabbing the makeup wipes,” said HU student Dana Williams, a senior nursing major from Henrico, Virginia. “It’s just a breath of fresh air to be effortless.”

Just imagine living life as comfortably as you would in the comfort of your home. That would be a utopia, but unfortunately the world expects too much. Sometimes people fail to realize that you can, in fact, be just as presentable with a little less. We cannot change how we were born. So why is there so much demand in modifying it? It just turns into a “pick me” competition between other women. It’s so easy to compare oneself to the next, but there is only one “you,” and the faster you cherish and accept that, the happier you will be.

“I used to think that that piling on tons of makeup, straightening my hair and wearing tight-fitting clothes would land me the man of my dreams,” University of Virginia student Jenay Lynch said. “That changed when I decided to not live by anyone else’s standards and live by my own. I chose to love my natural self. I chose to be OK with me. That changed my entire perception of things.”

You can’t get up every day and decide to live for what someone else may want. You must be in tune with the real you. You are a strong independent individual, and once you recognize that, the world will be able to see that across the room.

You need to know that it’s OK to be natural outside of the office or running a few errands. Try going a day without any makeup—as natural as you can be—and write down how you feel. Who cares that your skin isn’t perfect or that you’ve had a breakout? Stop being so hard on yourself. Whoever chooses to accept you in your rawest form is who is here to stay. Let the curls down, wipe your makeup off and just own it.