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Pretty or Smart

Why can't I be both?

By Diana BPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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When you work too hard and fall asleep vs. Party looks! 

Since I come from a Hispanic family, it is tradition that girls must wait to alter their appearance until they are 15 years old. The reasoning behind this mentality was always lost on me but I always respected traditions since I didn’t want to upset my parents. If we’re being honest I was always too afraid to go against any authority figure, I just assumed they knew best and that was all. However, the day I turned 15 was one of the happiest days of my life, not because I got fancy pictures with extravagant ball gowns or shiny heels, it was because I got so much makeup. As mentioned before, I wasn’t allowed to wear any makeup before, so you can imagine my excitement when my mother and aunt took me to a Mac store and bought me all the essentials. I was so happy and impatient I stayed up very late that night just to play with all my new toys, truth be told I ended up looking like a horrifying clown but it was so worth it. I’ve always been an artist, drawing is one of my favorite hobbies in the world. However, life gets busy and you don’t always have time for it, but makeup allows me to draw everyday on myself and the happiness that brings me is priceless.

You must be thinking I am a crazy girly girl who cares about nothing but makeup and how many Instagram followers I have and that’s where the issue comes in. Why do we assume girls can either be pretty or smart? I am here to prove you wrong, and to hopefully start a conversation on these assumptions that are so damaging to us girls. It is true, I am crazy about makeup, I have 2 drawers full of foundation and highlighters and all that overprice junk that my life seems to revolve around. However, I also work on a neuroscience lab performing complex brain surgery for research purposes. I’ve been to many scientific conferences where people from all over the world gather to share their knowledge, I have given talks in my university about my research. My point is I am not just a pretty girl who loves mascara, I am also a respected member of a scientific community bringing brand new innovations to the world and who are you to tell me I can’t be both?

“I’m pretty not smart” seems to be the favorite phrase of many cliché popular girls in movies, from Hollywood to Disney Channel and it boils my blood that such influential things are teaching young girls such damaging things. As a YouTube fan, I spend a lot of my free time watching makeup tutorials, but when I’ve searched tips on how to look good for a conference, or a poster presentation nothing comes up. Sure, you can find thousands of tutorials on job interviews and how to look beautiful for a date and you can use those as inspiration but that’s not the point. The point is you don’t see beautiful YouTubers make videos about how to rock a lab coat because girls that work at labs are smart and not pretty. By the way, this isn’t a criticism on YouTubers and I am not saying they are to blame because they are all beautiful and talented people who are incredibly smart and just fantastic all around. It is the social norms that are to blame, for making me, and a thousand other girls feel like we must choose between being beautiful and being smart and I’ve had it. I am going to perform 10 hour surgeries in my lab and I’m going to be rocking some Anastasia highlighter and there is nothing you can do to stop me! I am smart, I am brilliant, and I also love makeup and shoes and if that’s offensive or seems unnatural then you need to change that mentality because you my friend, are being sexist.

I’m sure many are wondering why is this so important to me, it seems trivial but I promise you it is not. There is nothing tribal about the percentage of girls in STEM fields and how as the years go by, a little girl who was once interested in science will simply let that dream go because she was told to be pretty and smile. I used to be this way as well, I used to think that if I didn’t wear mascara and I walked around with books all the time then that made me better that most girls, which is nothing but garbage. It was such a liberating feeling when I finally realized that not only is that not the case, but that I wanted to be like most girls, because as Hailee Steineld says, most girls are smart and strong and beautiful and I can’t think of a better way to live my life.

My point is simple, go to that chemistry lab and rock your contour while you make scientific breakthroughs, and whoever dares criticizes you is someone you don’t need in your life.

Oh, and always remember, the venn diagram of people who don’t find smart attractive and people you should stay away from, IS A CIRLE!

gender roles
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About the Creator

Diana B

I'm looking to tell my story and help other people!

Feel free to contact me and tell me your stories as well! :)

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