When I was a little girl I used to have “play makeup.” It was basically makeup kits for kids, but the colors were bright and bold, and the most that came in the kit were eyeshadow and lip balm. I remember telling my mom that I wanted real makeup, and she would say that I didn’t need it and was pretty the way I was. I used to hate when she would say this because confident little me knew I didn’t need makeup to look pretty. I just wanted to wear and play with the real deal.

Read more: Bare Faced

Fast forward to my teen years. Despite being old enough, I didn’t really wear makeup. The most I would do is a little mascara and lip gloss. Periodically, I would tell my mom that one day I would actually learn how to do my full face because makeup was always something I found interesting. She responded with a simple statement, “Once you see yourself with it, it’s hard to go without it.” I never realized what she meant until I had my makeup professionally done for prom. After that, I noticed I started filling my eyebrows in as part of my routine, wearing concealer a few times a week, and putting on false lashes. This eventually led to me doing a full face of makeup almost every time I went out with friends. It wasn’t that I didn’t like myself without makeup..but I really liked the way I looked with it. The compliments I received and the way I looked in photos with makeup on made me confident.

Although I’ve moved past the phase of wearing a full face of makeup every time I went out, I did start thinking about why so many women feel an unspoken pressure to look a certain way before stepping out into the world. This is something singer Alicia Keys brought attention to when she made the decision to stop wearing makeup publicly for almost 5 years. Her choice sparked conversations about society’s beauty standards and the expectations placed on women to always look “put together.” Of course, makeup is a form of self expression, but Alicia Keys is using her face to bring attention to how something as personal as choosing or not to wear makeup can become a statement on beauty and social expectations.

One of the articles discussing Alicia Keys decision: https://www.today.com/style/alicia-keys-says-she-quit-makeup-after-getting-addicted-it-t198665