What is beauty?

What is beauty? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. The world will tell you that beauty is in perfection. That you must have clear, smooth skin to be beautiful. That you must have clear blue eyes, and no gray hairs to be beautiful. That we must hide our scars, that we must smooth away our blemishes to be beautiful. To that idea of beauty, I say "Nope." Beauty is found in authenticity. Beauty is the scars, the imperfections that make us originals. If we were all carbon copies of each other with porcelain skin, blue eyes, and the perfect tan... wouldn't that be boring? It's not real!  I hate when I see girls/women looking at magazines and feeling bad about themselves. It's not real! It's like trying to eat a styrofoam apple. It might be shiny and perfect, blemish and bruise free, but it has no sustenance! To me, beauty is found in the bravery to strip down to our scars, our blemishes, our skin and say "this is me." Recently my dear friend asked me to take a picture of her scars from her battles with skin cancer. The portrait I took is on the left, and I find it to be striking. It's raw and gritty... it's real. It is beauty. Then just for fun she and I decided I should "fix" her portrait. (On the right.) To me, the portrait on the left is more beautiful, hands down. Thank you Nina for being brave enough to show us your beautiful scars.