Beauty Clones

Posted on by beautybeyondbones

First things first – I was absolutely blown away by the love and support following last week’s post. THANK YOU for the kind words and for passing along my post! It was shared over 300 times on Facebook, and over 100 times on Pinterest, and I’m just so grateful to have such incredible people in my life! 🙂

So I think earned a Gen Z merit badge yesterday.

No, I didn’t wear a crop top, or post my avocado toast on Instagram.

I watched YouTube.

Not like, I just fell upon a random YouTube video that I found on Facebook.

No, I actually sought out YouTube as my nightly entertainment. I chose it over Netflix.

And let me tell you: I went deep.

We’re talking sucked into the whirling vortex of YouTube content creators.

And upon my third hour of mindless make up tutorials and muckbangs, I realized something:

All women are starting to look the same.

I was watching a video by the makeup artist, Carli Bybel, and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me…is this Kylie Jenner? Bachelorette Andi Dorfman? Kim Kardashian? Who the heck am I looking at here?

And it’s because we’re all starting to look like the same concept of conventional beauty.

The lip fillers. Eyelash extensions. Microbladed eyebrows. Spray tans. Contoured cheeks. The “mermaid-style” hair extensions. Bleached teeth.

It’s like we’re all morphing into the same vision of “beauty” that was artificially manipulated by someone in the Kardashian/Jenner camp.

And it made me really sad.

Now let me pause for just a hot second here. I am not in any way passing judgement on anyone who may like to dabble in any of the aforementioned beauty procedures.

Goodness knows that I, for one, have a slew of routines that I joyfully partake in. I mean, it takes me close to an hour to straighten my God-given curly hair, for crying out loud! Not to mention, I love having white teeth, and I enjoy putting on a full face of make up!

So this is in no way an attack on that!

But I was just struck by how everyone on YouTube looked the same!

And then I started noticing it more and more: on Instagram, in commercials, at the Grammy’s, on the Bachelor – we’re morphing into this same, highly manipulated image of “beauty.”

And, it’s really interesting, approaching this as a survivor of anorexia. Because let’s be real: my relationship with the mirror, and beauty, and body image — they have run the literal gamut.

I will be the first to admit, that I spent a long time being a slave to the mirror. And that’s putting it lightly – I mean, I almost died in my quest for perfection – and that’s not an exaggeration in the slightest. Just ask my intake nurses at inpatient: I wasn’t allowed to walk for the first two weeks of my stay – I had to be wheeled around for fear of cardiac arrest.

But that’s neither here nor there.

It is an empty and exhausting existence when you’re constantly striving to have the perfect face, perfect body, perfect hair, perfect clothes. I can promise you that no lip filler or Kybella neck lift will give you the fulfillment and self-love you’re seeking.

If only it were that easy.

How did I finally overcome the mirror and learn to love the young woman staring back at me?

I had to stop seeing myself through my own eyes, and instead, start seeing myself through God’s eyes.

Because here’s the truth: I am a beautiful, one-of-a-kind work of art, hand crafted by the Father.

But the reality is that, we live in a world that has completely forgotten that.

Our culture has commodified beauty – making it something that is always changing, always just out of reach, making us believe that we are never good enough, never pretty enough, never thin, or smooth, or sparkly, or contoured, or sexy enough. We’re never enough. How quickly we forget that it’s a beauty industry, after all.

I wish I could just slam on the emergency breaks and yell at the top of my lungs that we don’t need any of this artificial crap to make us beautiful, or worthy. Enough of the photoshop. Enough of the gimmicks.

We don’t need to change who we are or try to enhance our appearance to have value or be worthy of love.

Our worth, our value, our beauty — it’s written into our DNA. God’s fingerprints are all over us.

Sometimes I just close my eyes and imagine God taking His big, Fatherly hands and cupping my face, looking into my eyes, and saying, Caralyn, I delight in you, my beautiful daughter. 

I mean, gosh, can you imagine?

Not for how I’m wearing my hair, or how “on fleek” my makeup is. Not for any accomplishment or achievement. Not for any of those things.

He delights in me, just for being His.

Now, when I look in the mirror, that’s what I see. I have to shut off the critical eye that wants to pick apart my reflection, and see instead the beautiful creation of God who is loved and cherished, despite my flaws and shortcomings. See instead, the instrument of God, that was handcrafted to fulfill an important, divine purpose that He has planned for me.

That’s a truth that I hold firm in my heart each and every day. Because the chaos around me will say that I need X-Y-Z to be valued and beautiful.

But my worth – your worth – and our belovedness – that truth is written on the Cross.


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Here was yesterday’s video! https://youtu.be/8pmp4ZI968A

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beautybeyondbones

BBB: Because we're all recovering from something. // For speaking/business inquiries: beautybeyondbones@yahoo.com

184 thoughts on “Beauty Clones”

  1. I completely agree with this post Caralyn. And dare i say, how glad i am to hear this.
    The quest for what might seem to be perfection in an already unique God-made body, is thru the roof these days.
    So i am glad you chose this topic to write on today.
    You have my full support on this one too

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  3. This is a very important post. The world powers have been an agenda to make everyone the same in many ways . You’re a wise woman. That said, pride and fear cause us to fall into the traps of comparison and vanity and trying to achieve perfection.

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    1. Thank you friend. You’re right – pride is definitely something that I have to work to keep in check. Hugs and love xox

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  4. Thank you for saying this 🙂 As a 17-year-old girl, this is something I realize daily.. Some days it’s easy to see the fact that I’m not the cookie cutter woman, other days it’s not. But knowing that other people feel/see this is so helpful. 💙

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    1. Thank you 💛 yes! That is so important to remember and it sounds like you’re on a great path! Rock on sister 🙂 Hugs and love xox

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  5. The beauty industry indeed! I am so very grateful that my husband thinks I am beautiful each and everyday no matter what size I am at the moment, or what stage of life we are at. We all fall into the comparison trap at some point and it’s so wonderful to have reminders like this one that God loves us for who we are on the inside. It doesn’t matter what the world sees, it matters what God sees. Thank you for the reminder and keep on being you. God Bless!

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  7. I enjoy naturally beautiful women. I have told some ladies that they are beautiful without their makeup. I understand that some do it, but there are those who overdo it.

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  8. Such a well written post! I literally just said this same thing to someone the other day! We dye our hair the same, pluck our eyebrows the same, wear our makeup the same and with the correct filter we all look exactly the same! BORING!! I’m starting to really appreciate natural beauty…just saying!

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  9. Always love your post, but this is a great great one! I feel like it is a huge identity crisis growing up in school, trying to fit in yet discover who you are. I personally floated my own boat, I barely ever wear makeup, for special occasions I will, my hair is always in its natural state, I don’t flatten it or curl it. Growing up I concluded I wanted a man to love me for who I was and not who I dressed up to be. I have always tried to be the most authentic I can be. I like dabbling in make up from time to time but 98% of the time it’s the face I wake up to that walks out the door because I’ve embraced my natural beauty. I struggled with this for awhile but I’m so glad I didn’t desire beauty products often and honestly it was my lack in knowledge how to use them. I remember my sophomore year my friends doing my makeup for snowball cause I had no clue what I was doing. I grew up on a farm, my mom used to never leave home as a teen without a face of makeup and hair done and now she never wears makeup except for weddings. And maybe that is why natural beauty was easier for me because that’s how I grew up. My mom is pretty and makeup can enhance that but to embrace natural beauty is such an amazing feeling.

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    1. Thank you friend 🙂 that is so so true. An amazing feeling indeed. And thank you for sharing your story. You’ve got a powerful testimony!! 🙂 Hugs and love xox

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      2. Hi The folk legends, the mouth of the world, the voices of some parents say that marrying a young man is a chore, that you bind your head though it does not hurt you, drastically reduce the time of fun, forgive your youth, problems appear earlier, you have time for yourself, etc.

        Is that really so? As one who got married at 21, I can tell you that marrying a very young is the best decision, I have won years of force, determination, strength of youth to invest in the highest the blessing of what we received on earth, namely in the family, the image of God on earth. Even young people have made children, they are my greatest achievement and the best investment (an eternal investment unlike houses and cars that remain here).

        To run away from a family is to run away from what can best define you as a human being. To be afraid that you have to share everything, give it all, sacrifice yourself, and seek to preserve yourself in the “form of indifference” is very dangerous. Because you may like this way of life “sober and relaxed.” I’m not saying that lonely ones do not give, one is not yet found, or choose celibacy to dedicate yourself to a noble cause and the other is to kick off any occasion, except that you have reservations and suspicions about whoever listen to the mother who told you what frustrations and tensions are in her relationship with my dad or vice versa.

        If you have gathered the world’s words and think of the family as a prison, I want to tell you that for me the family is actually leaving my own carapace in the real light of life!

        God help!

        P.S. In the picture are some of the young people of the Profides Bucharest community who will say a great DA this year. 

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  13. Well said. I remember sitting at the airport in Johannesburg about a year or two ago and having a similar thought. Everyone looked like clones of each other. We wear the same styled clothes, have the same hairstyles and wear the same make-up and then say we are striving to be individuals. It’s quite sad to see really. “Be you. Everyone else is taken” I can’t remember who said that but they were so right. Fashion is for the masses. True style stands out from the crowd.

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    1. thank you so much friend 🙂 it really is crazy how we’re all morphing into the same vision of beauty. I love that quote – yes! be you!!! 🙂 hugs xox

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  14. This is truly wonderful. I couldn’t agree more with you, and I am truly saddened to see so many women chasing the same, mass produced aesthetic. God created all of us individually, perfectly crafted and completely beautiful in His eyes. If only we can begin to see ourselves – and each other – the same way.

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  15. God gave you to us to teach us to be ourselves. I believe he wanted me to have the kids I have because I was told I would never be able to . So I have never taken motherhood for granted. I was honor for sun blogger award I was so nervous getting it right I wish I had awarded you . You are amazing and don’t you ever forget it.❤️

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    1. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. And wow – that’s so beautiful! God is so good and I’m so glad He gave you that incredible blessing!! big hugs xox

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