Every year millions of women spend money on skincare products, volumizing mascara’s, and shimmery lip gloss colours. If they’re not purchasing products they are excitedly swatching all the endless amount of makeup that is available in Sephora. Some would say makeup is the product of a women’s insecurity. Others might think that makeup has the ability to completely change one’s appearance. However, l think a girl can never have enough lipsticks. There’s nothing more I look forward to doing my makeup in the morning. I feel confident. Makeup is an outlet and for some, it has helped them overcome the most difficult obstacles of their lives. I discovered these beauty vloggers guru’s on YouTube and they share their stories of how makeup has let them overcome their hardships.
1) YESTERDAY’S WISHES
Meet Lucy Edwards a blind beauty vlogger from England. She was diagnosed with a rare disease that has caused her to lose her eyesight. According to BuzzFeed, “it took her a year to learn how to apply makeup by herself.” She doesn’t have the luxury of using a mirror but has learned that putting on makeup is possible. Her sister Alice is the one that has been helping her perfect her makeup look. On her channel, she shares how she is coping with being blind and provides tips on how to apply makeup for girls who are going through the same thing she is. With the help of YouTube makeup has become an outlet for her to stay positive even though she has lost her eyesight. In an interview with Buzzfeed Lucy says,
“Because I’m making myself pretty, it makes me feel better about myself on the inside. I know the media has a lot of rubbish about whether you need make-up and so on – I don’t think I need it especially, but it’s just a thing that makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel like I’m in control.”
Lucy shows us that having a positive attitude and never letting anything get in the way of your happiness is how one should live their life. Her slogan on her youtube channel is, “You can have blindness and beauty,” and she is absolutely right.
2) JORDAN BONE
When watching Jordan Bone’s videos I never noticed that her hands are always closed in a fist position. Only when I watched her video called My Beautiful Struggle, did I learn that she isn’t able to open up her hands. She was in a car accident when she was fifteen that damaged her spinal cord. After that, she became a quadriplegic. Her hands and legs became paralyzed giving her no choice but to use a wheelchair. Jordon became depressed and had no idea how she could use her hands when they are so weak. In her video she says,
“Being the girl in the wheel chair wasn’t my plan. I didn’t want people to see just the chair.”
She’s not able to dress herself or do her hair, so makeup became a passion that helped her realize life after her accident was possible. She practised until she perfected her makeup. In her blog she says that for her to able to do makeup is a miracle. For her the struggles she went through after her accident only made her become a stronger person.
3) FASHIONEYESTA
Emily Davison is another visually impaired beauty vlogger on Youtube. She has a condition in called Septo Optic Dysplasia. Her condition has caused her to become blind in her right eye and has left with ten per cent central vision in her left eye. Emily doesn’t let her disability come in the way of her love for all things beauty and fashion. On her channel, she explains how one needs to learn how to embrace the obstacles life throws at them.
“You make the disability what it is, it doesn’t make you.”
In one her videos called Embracing Disability she discusses how having a disability doesn’t mean you’re a disabled person. Having a disability means there’s a part of your body that does not function and because of this you have other body parts that are working even better to help you accomplish everyday tasks.
What I’ve learnt from these vloggers is that makeup has become a method of coping with their disability. Once you accept the disability as apart of who you are and who you are going to be, then it really does make you a better person. People with disabilities live a richer life because they understand the value of life. Being somebody who lives with somebody disabled, I know that not everybody can overcome the reality of what has happened to them. They choose to be bitter and these beauty vloggers are an example of how living a happy life is possible no matter what life throws at you. They are not only inspirational but they are bringing awareness to important topics. In the beauty and fashion industry today you don’t see many people with disabilities. This is because the beauty and fashion industry only showcase women who they consider flawless and perfect. However, that’s just not realistic. Only now have I been noticing a very small amount of people in the fashion industry who have disabilities. The world needs to pay more attention to them because they are truly beautiful individuals.
Feature Image Via: Jordon’s Beautiful Life
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