Singer and actress Moneoa took to instagram to share her makeup free selfie with a lengthy note where the actress talked about her years of insecurity and finally conquering her age long fear. She also took the time to encourage other women to embrace their body.
She wrote:
“I’ve always been afraid to post pictures of myself without makeup on because I hated my nose, was embarrassed of my gapped tooth and I had an acne problem. It caused a lot of scarring and abrasion on my face and throughout high school, I kinda thought I was ugly.
I used to obsess over pretty girls with beautiful skin,small pointy noses and pretty teeth, Lol. I literally used to stalk them on Facebook, then I’d stand in the mirror and cover my nose and cheeks (where the acne scarring was) and imagine what I’d look like if I had more of their features.
Well, my skin’s a whole lot better today thanks to a few acne treatments. However, It still took a lot for me to post this because it’s still not exactly perfect but for the first time in a long time… I don’t care.
I feel so good and so blessed and so fortunate. I’d be lying if I said I know where this feeling came from, I haven’t a clue. I just woke up one day and I felt empowered. It must have been God because I have no explanation for it. I woke up, looked in the mirror with my flawed skin, flat nose and gapped tooth and said “Damn, who’s that hot thang”. Lol.
Funny enough, thereafter, I started getting compliments left, right and centre.
Not that I’d never had any before. I did but obviously as people no one can make us believe in the things that we don’t believe in first, and even so, this time wasn’t about me believing in the compliments, it was about how shockingly often I was getting them.
I’m not posting this to fish for compliments.
I want to show young people that beauty isn’t determined by the features that society praises. Not everyone with perfect skin, perfect teeth and a perfect nose is pretty. There a gorgeous people out there with buck teeth and pimples, flat noses and long chins, fat cheeks, huge foreheads and more.
We get caught up in what society tells us beauty is instead of creating authentic trends of what it should be.
The people that have changed the world didn’t accomplish that by adjusting themselves to fit into it. They embraced themselves and what they had to offer and in doing so, they made the world adjust to them.
No makeup, No filter. Feeling Beautiful.”