Real Natural Beauty- I am Brave & Beautiful

I am Brave and Beautiful – a beauty movement that is sweeping the globe. Colbie Caillat started it with her recent song and video called TRY. My blogging friend Megan of Brassy Apple wanted to push this movement along and invited women from all over to share what they looked like without make up and I joined in!! Colbie’s song says, “Take your make up off. Let your hair down… Look into the mirror at yourself, Do you like you? Cause I like you… “

Megan and her friend Cobi of Peacefrom6pieces have been the team behind this whole project. Their worldwide vision included creating their own video inspired by the song TRY. The talent of Robbins Creative made it possible for them to pull it off. You have to click play and see the beauty and bravery displayed and you might even recognize a few faces in there.

I’ve joined 101+ other blogging women from different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, ages, shapes and sizes have decided to be Brave and Beautiful! You can join in this movement too by sharing what you look like without makeup on. You don’t need a blog either! Just tag your photo with #IamBraveAndBeautiful on Instgram and search the hashtag to see who else has joined in. ALSO, if you tag it with a second hashtag – #ColbieTRY we just might be able to get Colbie Caillat’s attention since she was the inspiration behind it all!

Are you brave and beautiful?

I am, here I go!

You know I’m a photographer, right? Well it drives me crazy to not be able to photoshop something. So I refrained for these pictures. It was hard. Really hard.

The first picture is totally natural. No make up, NO PHOTOSHOP, nada. The second one is the same day with make-up on but still NO PHOTOSHOP. The only thing I fixed with photoshop on the make-up picture was coloring and the brightness of my eyes.

A little different. But not a huge difference, right? Freckles galore! Do I feel scared to post this picture? I thought I would be, but I’m really not. I want everyone to know the real me. What I really look like. I don’t want to hide anything. I think I’ll go without make up a little more often now that I’m empowered.

Why is it so hard for us to look in the mirror at ourselves and not start picking apart everything that is wrong with us? Why is it so hard to tell ourselves that we are beautiful just the way we are? Is it our family? Is it our parents? Is it our spouses? I hope you said NO to all of those. The people around us love us. They love us for who we are. They love us whether or not we look perfect. They want us around for a very long time. They see our real beauty shining through. They see our strengths, our weaknesses, our joys and our sorrows and they still love us.

It’s the outside world that makes us feel like we are less than beautiful if we are not done up with make-up, curls, trendy jewelry and the latest fashionable clothing. They want us to fit a mold. A mold that is ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL. Well, I’m sorry WORLD, but I’m not buying it! I’M NOT BUYING IT! I am here. I am strong. I AM WHO I AM. And I’m not going to change to make you happy!

Before I met my husband, I had a really low self esteem. There were people in my life who were always tearing me down. It’s hard to pick yourself up from something like that. If you are around someone like this in your life, PLEASE, sever your relationship with them NOW. No one deserves to be torn down. EVER. My husband has helped me back up. He has built up my self esteem. I still struggle like everyone else, but I’m much better at complimenting myself now. I try to look at the positive things about my appearance that I like and focus on those. When someone compliments me, I say “Thank You!” Do you know how hard that is? I challenge you from now on, when someone compliments you, say “Thank you”. That’s all. Just “Thank you”. Then take it in and hold it in your mind. Then when you are feeling bad, remember it and smile.

My husband always told me that one thing he looked for the most in a girl was if she looked drastically different with-out make-up on. He wanted to marry a girl who still looked good without make up on. Which is a good thing because I look ridiculous with a ton of make up on. He said he would always take a girl he was dating swimming, and if he still recognized her with wet hair and make-up washed off, she was still dateable. Ha Ha!

There is another person that loves me just the way I am. Heavenly Father. He knows my heart. He knows me inside and out. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. He know’s what I can become. He knows all my sorrows and joys and he helps me through everything. He loves you too. You are a child of God. He wants us all to be happy.

 Here is the headshot I use on social media and on my blog. Does it look like me? Do I look like the same person? Granted this was taken 2 years ago, when I was 20 pounds lighter. I’ve photoshopped my dark circles under my eyes and my wrinkles. I’ve smoothed my skin. I’ve played with the lighting. I’ve brightened my eyes, etc.

It’s sad that we live in a world where we only try to share the perfect picture, the perfect project, the perfectly behaved children, when in fact, none of these are perfect. Let’s share our true selves.

I’m trying to teach my daughters that they don’t need a ton of make-up to be beautiful. Every hair on their head doesn’t need to be in place. Their clothes don’t need to be name brand. People will like them for who they are, not what they look like.

I hope we can all be empowered and stop comparing ourselves to others. Just focus on yourself. Do you like you? Because I like you! Love~ Annette

Don’t stop here. Get clicking around – its a blog hop! Below are more brave and beautiful women bearing more than their natural beauty. They each have a little bit of their heart to share with you. Some get very personal. Some share stories. For some this was very hard to do yet they gathered their courage and did it anyway. We hope as you click around (and YES pin these different posts!) you will feel the importance of it, the empowering effect it has and that it encourages you in some way.

>>>>>>>Important info! Blog Hops often have glitches the first day. If the link has an ERROR, simply click on the HOME button for each site, or google the blog name next to the link, and you should see their brave and beautiful post there. Links will be updated as soon as possible.<<<<<<<<<<<<

1. BrassyApple 2. Peace from 6 Pieces 3. Is this Really My Life 4. Among the Young 5. Love Me Dani Marie 6. Sweet Charli 7. Kim Orlandini 8. XO, Ashton Tilton 9. She Calls Me Mama Leisha 10. Raising Memories – Canada 11. A Little Tipsy 12. Amy Cornwell 13. A girl and a glue gun 14. My Craftily Ever After 15. Maybe I Will 16. WhipperBerry 17. Paging SuperMom 18. All Things Thrifty 19. Ashlee Marie 20. The Project Girl

21. One Little Momma 22. Entirely Eventful Day 23. Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl 24. Tips from a Typical Mom 25. Utah Sweet Savings 26. Flats to Flip Flops 27. One Krieger Chick 28. What Meegan Makes 29. Simply Kierste 30. Live to be Inspired 31. HoneyBear Lane 32. Pretty Providence 33. Ma Nouvelle Mode – in FRANCE 34. MomEntity 35. Serger Pepper – in ITALY 36. Kiki and Company 37. Girl Loves Glam 38. Thrive

39. The Potters Place 40. Crafting in the Rain 41. Cooking With Ruthie 42. Delineate Your Dwelling 43. The Pennington Point 44. Bakerette 45. The Happy Scraps 46. Shannon Baird Photography 47. Tried and Tasty 48. Lionesses at the Gate 49. Fry Sauce and Grits 50. Lolly Jane 51. That’s What Che Said 52. Sugar Bee Crafts 53. Your HomeBased Mom 54. Happiness is Homemade 55. The Crafted Sparrow 56. R&R Workshop 57. I Should Be Mopping the Floor 58. Sassy Steals

59. Let’s Eat Grandpa 60. Being Spiffy 61. Sumo’s Sweet Stuff 62. Ginger Snap Crafts 63. Bless This Mess 64. Apronista 65. Dreaming About Someday 66. Frenchie 67. Tastefully Frugal 68. Four Marrs and One Venus 69. Your Sister Circle 70. Over the Big Moon 71. See Vanessa Craft 72. Infarrantly Creative 73. Family StoryTelling

74. Albion Gould 75. Life as Mrs. Larson 76. Tried and True 77. Play.Party.Pin. 78. Bite of Delight 79. Ink Happi 80. ObSEUSSed 81. U Create 82. My Mommy Style 83. Find it Make it Love it 84. The Contractor Chronicles 85. Novae Clothing 86. Mommy Makes Things 87. At Home with Sweet T 88. We Like to Learn As We Go 89. House for Five 90. Organize and Decorate Everything 91. Sassy Southern Gurl 92. The Creative Mom 93. Keep Moving Forward with Me

94. The Benson Street 95. Mom 4 Real 96. Sowdering About 97. illistyle 98. The Crafty Blog Stalker 99. A Fiery Red Life 100. Cupcakes & Crowbars 101. One Sweet Appetite 102. My DayLights 103. Restless Risa

104. Sypsie Designs 105. Vintage Mother 106. Like Mother Like Daughter 107. 30 Handmade Days 108. Queen B and Me 109. Apples by Ashley 110. Boutique Cafe – in CANADA 111. Just My Little Mess 112. Bombshell Bling 113. Sarah Tyau 114. Taradara Make it 115. Capturing Joy 116. Ivory Lime Photography 117. Jenkins Kid Farm 118. Free Time Frolics 119. Bella Storia 120. Dana Ohlsen Photography

Ready to join in? Snap, hashtag and share! Tag @BrassyApple and @Peacefrom6Pieces if you can too!

Also follow our Bravery and Beauty PINTEREST board for more inspiration!

Love,
Annette