From day one it has been a human custom to compare ourselves to one another. Socially agreed upon ideas of beauty ingrained in our systems, paired with time until it is accepted as a norm… you have a beauty standard. Beauty standards take effect all around the world. Students here at Rocklin High School [RHS] who have viewpoints from different countries were interviewed. RHS sophomore Daisy Cambri says, “For example when I went back to the Philippines, my home country, it was a complete culture shock because everyone wanted to be similar to the Korean beauty standards like skin bleaching…”

It’s no secret that the extent of trying to fit into a beauty standard can be harmful. The desire to associate with beauty standards is strong enough in society, people are willing to inflict harm on themselves to achieve beauty. Do you think we can differentiate changing ourselves to please others, from changing ourselves to feel more confident? Cambri said, “I’ve seen a lot of people who touch in more their culture instead of fitting into a society of other cultures’ beauty standards… It would be easier for me to fit in and adapt to Filipino beauty standards because I am Filipino.” We must recognize that we are a society of different cultures, as Cambri explained that she can not associate herself with western standards simply because she is an individual of her own culture.

RHS senior Nicole Nigei, a foreign exchange student, said, “It’s [a] culture thing for my Japanese family, people being skinny is really important but also at the same time for me I’m brazilian. I was born in Brazil, my parents were born in Brazil, but we are all Japanese so it’s weird and hard because we’re between both beauty standards so we don’t really know what beauty standards should we follow.” Media is poisoned with internalized ideas of beauty. Younger generations growing with social media must learn how to embrace their ethnic beauty rather than blindly following the next trending influencer. RHS sophomore Reegan Chima said, “I’ve tried now to actively seek out people that are in the same culture as me that make me feel like I’m not the only person here that is like this.”

This shows that social media really can be a double edged sword. In contrast to finding your own culture being embraced in media, Chima said, “In social media you’ll see someone that is this perfect definition of beauty that we’ve created. I feel like it makes younger girls especially a lot worse about themselves.