#BarefacedBeauty: Why Women Should Embrace Their Natural Look

In the U.S. alone, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their life, which is why this year’s theme of National Eating Disorders Awareness (NEDA) Week (February 24-March 2, 2013) is “Everybody Knows Somebody” is so perfect!

The goal of NEDA is to get everyone to do just one thing to help raise awareness and provide accurate information about eating disorders. What specifically stood out to us is The Renfrew Center Foundation’s second annual Barefaced & Beautiful, Without & Within campaign, which encourages women to celebrate self-acceptance and inner beauty by going without makeup for a day during NEDA Week.

This campaign couldn’t be coming at a better time. Recently The Renfrew Center released the results of a survey conducted by Harris Interactive which showed that at least one in five young girls (between 8-18-years-old) in the United States have negative, insecure feelings about their self-image when not wearing makeup and compare being bare-faced and natural  to being unattractive.

The online survey was conducted December 4-11 and polled a total of 572 younger girls. Highlights include:

• At least one in five young girls have negative feelings when they don’t wear makeup
  At least 20 percent of girls who have ever worn makeup have negative feelings when they are not wearing makeup, reporting feeling self-conscious (20%), unattractive (17%) and naked/as though something is missing (15%). Only five percent of these girls said going without makeup made them feel more attractive.
• Young girls are starting to wear makeup much earlier
  Almost three in five young girls surveyed (58%) admitted to wearing makeup. Of the girls who wear makeup, two-thirds (65%) started between the ages of 8 and 13: Twenty-nine percent between the ages of 14 and 16, 50 percent between 11 and 13, and 15 percent between the ages 8 and 10.
• Young girls do not like being seen without makeup
  Over a quarter of girls who wear makeup (27%) rarely/never leave the house without it. The places that makeup-wearing girls felt were acceptable to be seen without makeup were home (89%), pool or beach (84%), and gym (82%). The places that were least acceptable were a friend’s house (67%) and school (58%).

Last year, Renfrew worked with Harris Interactive and surveyed women ages 18 and older and found that they had incredibly similar responses with the main difference being that older women felt unattractive without makeup whereas younger girls felt insecure.

To get involved, people are being asked to share a photo on social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) of themselves in all their natural glory – no makeup – with the hashtag #Barefacedbeauty. In addition you’re encouraged to post positive comments under other’s photos! Even celebrity stylist Stacy London got in on the fun!

What do you think of these findings? Will you be supporting the #barefacedbeauty challenge?

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