By Emily Larkin, Staff Writer
I decided to mark the beginning of fall by buying a customary pumpkin spice latte and posing for a picture. As I scrolled through the filters on Snapchat, I couldn’t help but notice that all of the filters that were supposed to be “cute” changed my eye color from brown to blue.
I looked on in awe as I flipped through each “dolled up” filter just to see someone else’s eyes in every single one. It made me reflect on my life and the rocky relationship I’ve had with my own eyes.
This isn’t anything new. When I was 7, I remember asking my mom why my eyes weren’t pretty like my friends’. What I really meant is “Why do my eyes have to be brown?”
To say my eyes were my first insecurity is an understatement. Though my list of wants and needs growing up was long, three items tied for the top spot— my letter to Hogwarts, a puppy, and to have any eye color but brown.
Everywhere I looked, girls who were deemed beautiful by society never seemed to have brown eyes. Blue eyes were always compared to the ocean or the sky and green full of the most beautiful parts of the forrest or sparkling emeralds, but I could only see brown eyes as dirt or mud.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what if the beholder can’t find beauty in her own eyes?
It took me 21 years of self-discovery before I could appreciate the way my eyes give off an intensely beautiful red hue in the sunlight or look rich with meaning. I don’t want other little girls with brown eyes to have to take that long to understand why they are beautiful.
No one should have to feel like a part of them makes them inferior to anybody else. All eyes are beautiful; it’s time we started acting like it.
PHOTO: Courtesy Photo. Emily Larkin.
