Ginger Pride

Why it’s so important to flaunt what your Mumma gave you.

Let’s face it, society sucks. It’s judgemental and rude and expects you to be flawless. Forgetting about the whole 'Photoshop' thing for a second. Unless you're willing to exercise multiple times a day and live off a strict diet you will struggle to look like the girls in the magazines. So instead of focusing on looking like someone who isn’t the real version of themselves, you should focus on loving the person you already are!

My Mumma gave me pale skin, red hair and a whole bunch of freckles. Okay so she didn’t technically give me the freckles that was the sun and my skin doing their mutating thing, but she did give me the gene so I could mutate. My dad gave me my sense of humour and having

a really long second toe.

If you’ve ever had a ginger friend or you’re a ginger yourself, you have probably memorised a list of nicknames to use or deal with on a daily basis. These may include: ranga, ginger, candle stick, carrot top, copper head, freckles, rusty, fireball or Strawberry Shortcake. If you’re going to take offence to any of these you’ll probably just be subjected to more teasing so just grow a thick skin and join in the fun! Of course, so long as the person you're nicknaming isn't taking offence to it.

I’ve never had any problems with people bullying me because of my hair colour and maybe that’s why it’s so easy for me to love it. Or maybe it’s the countless old ladies who shuffle up to me and tell me how beautiful my hair is; that I should never dye it because it doesn’t come back the same colour (true fact). Or, when a boy I liked admitted the first thing he noticed about me was my hair colour and he thought it was cool. Whatever the moment, sitting here now I’m glad to be different and I’m proud to have red hair.

In a society where young girls and boys are subjected to the medias perception of what they should look like and who they should be, I think it is important as ever to teach kids about self-love. There needs to be more Old Ladies roaming the streets telling young people how amazing they look. I’m of average height and weight and I’m happy. I see models on Instagram in their tiny bikinis looking great while I’m downing my third brownie of the day, but I have everything they have PLUS brownies so who’s really the winner here?

Insecurities have been around as long as people have been around. Tummy fat, uneven eyebrows, nose size, teeth structure, skin colour, hair colour, whatever it might be everyone has something that they feel insecure about. It probably changes depending on what you’re wearing and who you’re with. The trick is to pick something you love about yourself and focus on that. I love my hair. My boyfriend loves his eyes. You were born the way you are for a reason; why would you want to change it? It makes you uniquely you and sets you a part from everyone else. It’s your point of difference to the world so you should embrace it.

Let’s take Cara Delevinge for example. She’s an international model and actress. Her point of difference to the world is her dark, bushy eyebrows. During the 1990’s the trend was to over-pluck your eyebrows, until they were wafer thin. The trend was everywhere; magazines, billboards, mothers, waiters and cashiers. For women seeing beautiful people with beautifully plucked eyebrows everywhere created self-doubt and obviously self-esteem issues. These days, bushy eyebrows are in and people will go to extraordinary lengths to achieve such results (including eyebrow tattooing). It just goes to show that not all trends should be followed. The ladies who over-plucked their eyebrows in the 90's now have to invest their time filling in their eyebrows to match todays trend. In an article written by The Guardian, writer Lauren Cochrane gives readers a few statistics to show just how popular eyebrows are these days:

• According to a market research company, NPD, British women spend an average of £200 a year on eyebrow grooming.

• There are more than THREE MILLION posts on Instagram that include #brows and more than 600,000 with #browsonfleek.

• There are more than 500,000 YouTube tutorials on how to get your brows on fleek. One Youtuber even advises setting aside a whole hour to achieve the perfect brow.

You can see how trends changes throughout the years and the things you might dislike about yourself today may end up being the next ‘big thing’ tomorrow.

So I say rock your red hair or bushy eyebrows because a little bit of love goes a long way.

#love #selflove #redheads #gingers