"True Beauty" day at Mexico High School
/ Photo: Brandon Roth
MEXICO, NY -- When Mexico High School English teacher Shannon Bigelow saw girls under pressure to live up to an unrealistic ideal of beauty, she decided to do something about it.
"I had this idea that we could do a day where the girls could come to school with no make-up on," says Bigelow.
That's how "True Beauty" day began. Students and staff come to school on "True Beauty" day without makeup to make a statement about the real source of beauty.
Hundreds of students at Mexico High School and Mexico Middle School participated in the special day while elementary students experienced Light of the World Ballet’s "You Are Special."
"True Beauty" day is much more than a day with®out make-up. It is a day for students to think about what their own true beauty is, and what qualities they think make others beautiful as well.
"The whole day is just a real focus on who you are on the inside and what you have inside that makes you beautiful. Honesty, kindness, compassion all of those things," says Bigelow.
Morgan Diamond, a student at Mexico High School, agrees that when it comes to true beauty, it's what's on the inside that counts.
"You don't need make-up to look beautiful, you have your regular skin, your insides, your personality," says Diamond.
This is the second year Mexico High School has had a "True Beauty" day. The project has been such a success that other schools are now considering starting their own.
Bigelow hopes the lesson about true beauty will last these girls a lifetime.
"I think the most important thing I want them to take away from this is it's not about how you look it is about who you are," says Bigelow.
