I Was a Teenage Beauty Pagent LoserThese competitions promise self-transformation and personal growt

I Was a Teenage Beauty Pagent LoserThese competitions promise self-transformation and personal growth. The reality isn’t so prettyThere were so many small moments of kindness throughout that pageant. I remember a Colombian girl, who already looked and acted like a pageant queen, giving me tips on my runway walk. I remember chats in-person and over Facebook Messenger with a Filipina teen who lost this pageant but went on to win others, and how she sent a photo of me that a member of her family had taken. Although we were being judged against one another, my relationships with the contestants were surprisingly supportive. It wasn’t the competition that weighed on me—instead, it was the privileging of certain types of beauty and my own false belief that, if I tried hard enough, I could contort myself into those boxes.Read more at thewalrus.ca.Illustration by Mariah Llanes (mariahmakes.com). -- source link

More pics about