Florence,a pretty blonde woman,is led to a quiet, open room full of windows; sheer curtains are placed all around, giving a breathtaking view of the setting sun against city’s skyline. She walks apprehensively towards a sofa chair in the middle of the room, she realizes that there is a man sitting with his back towards her, a curtain separating them. She also notices that the man has a drafting board. They never make eye contact as she sits down. The mysterious man breaks the silence when he asks her to describe her hair. Back and forth, question and answer, Florence begins to realize that the man is drawing her.
The man is an FBI trained forensic sketch artist, Gil Zamora.
Florence, along with many other women, have no idea that they are apart of Dove’s new beauty campaign.
Zamora asks her to describe a range of facial features, from her eyes to her jaw. “My mom told me I had a big jaw.” she replies pensively. Another woman, Shelly, explains that the older she’s gotten, the more freckles have appeared. Kela tells Zamora that she has a big forehead. Countless other women tell him about the flaws on their faces, from a protruding chin to having round fat cheeks.
Once Zamora completed the drawing of each woman, they left and a complete stranger walked into the room. The stranger was asked earlier that day to get acquainted with one of the drawing subjects. Zamora asks them how they perceived the woman they just saw. All of them, described each of the women with compliments like ,”her eyes lighting up when she talked” or ” having a thin face so you could see her cheekbones”. Chloe, who described Florence, said that she had a nice thin chin, the same facial feature that Florence herself disliked. The strangers were then asked to leave the room.
The drawing subjects then returned to the room, each rendered speechless by the sight they beheld:
Pictures, two by two, hanging from the ceiling all over the room. On the left the women saw how they described themselves and on the right, how a stranger saw them.
The picture on the left made the women appear unattractive, while the picture on the right gave an accurate portrayal of what the women actually looked like.
In every case, the pictures on the right were more beautiful than the pictures of the left. Each woman saw for themselves how truly beautiful they were.
“I should be more grateful of my natural beauty,” says Florence, ” It impacts the choices that we make, the friends that we make, the jobs we apply for, how we treat our children.It impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.”
This inspirational experiment proves that women are disgusted with themselves and they pick out flaws that others don’t even see. Why can’t women see that they are beautiful just the way they are? It’s a sad commentary to know that most women don’t find themselves attractive; self-confidence is an important quality to possess. It makes you more approachable and you feel so much happier and certain about the decisions you make in your life.
” We spend a lot of time as women analyzing and trying to fix the things that aren’t quite right,” Melina,another subject, said .”And we should spend more time appreciating the things we do like.”
The message rings clear to viewers everywhere:
You are more beautiful than you think.
