A male friend told me I should be proud of my no-makeup look because I look cute and look 20 years younger even without makeup.

For the first 17 years of my life I believed I was ugly. So hearing something positive about my now inconsistently cute face, of course, feels good. Who wouldn’t feel good hearing a compliment?

I told him I don’t think anyone should be proud of their no-makeup look. Why?

Because a no-makeup look is what we got for free when we were born. We didn’t choose that look when we were born. We didn’t earn it. There’s no work involved whatsoever to have that look.

Despite the (supposedly) inspirational movement of encouraging women to be proud of their no-makeup look, my view has been the same for over two decades now, that we should be proud of something we earn, something we work hard for, not something we got for free.

If I put on some makeup and I look extraordinarily beautiful because of it, then I deserve to be proud as it has a lot to do with my makeup skill, not a face I got for free.

And by the way, my makeup skill is still pretty much almost non-existent as it looks more like “I tried” than “I’m beautiful”. Especially the asymmetrical eyebrows. Don’t talk about it if you still want to live. But I’m keen to learn to do some makeup one day. Have you seen my latest nail polish? They’re as pretty as Cruella De Vil.

Back to the title of this post, in my opinion, people shouldn’t be proud of something they got for free. Selfie crazy people who boast about their ‘naturally beautiful no-makeup’ face and patriotic nuts who scream: “Proud to be… (insert any race/nation here)” are delusional for thinking that they earn such looks or such skin colour/race.

Here are the most common things people are proud of – but got it ‘for free’:

• Face, body, skin colour, eye colour, anything they were born with
• Race
• Gender
• The religion of their family
• Social status from inheritance and not from their own hard/smart work or business

I’m not saying you should be ashamed of who you are, no. You should accept yourself the way you are otherwise you’ll forever feel uncomfortable and that’s not a pretty feeling. So accept who you are, whether you’re: black, yellow, white, polkadot, beautiful, tall, sexy, but be aware that you got them for free.

And here is a list you can be proud of – because you work for it:

• achievement
• education
• self-discipline
• skills that you’ve learned for years
• books you’ve read (especially the difficult-to-understand ones)
• muscles (yes muscles, because it takes a hell lot of work and discipline to build muscles!),
• long-term relationships (a lot of skills involved in a long-term relationship: patience, empathy, communication, negotiation, understanding and self-discipline)
• kindness (especially when you’re surrounded by schmucks)

Conclusion

Be proud of things you work hard for, not things you got for free.