“Growing up in Russia, I was used to very narrow rules of being attractive and the ever-consistent beauty standards we were taught and reminded of word-of-mouth. But later, when I moved to the USA, I was charmed with how different everyone looked. I’ve met and was fascinated by people of different body shapes, sizes, skin colors, hair textures, sexualities, ages, and abilitie — so many beautiful people. But, something didn’t add up when I watched what was presented in media. The gap between my reality and TV/magazines/catalogs was so shockingly wide. So I created the Real Catwalk, to narrow the wide gap and widen the beauty standards showed to us in the media — the new face of beauty in each and everyone’s beauty. I believe that fashion/beauty/Hollywood affects how we, the observers perceive ourselves, and it can further us away from accepting what we look like as we chase after looking like a person we saw in a heavily retouched cosmetics campaign.
By: KhrystyAna
