“Beauty vs. the Beast” by Brielle Black is an awe-inspiring piece that deals with the way society affects women – both mentally and physically. Every American girl is exposed to advertisements on billboards, in magazines, and on the Internet every day. These ads create unrealistic images of the “perfect body.” Today’s media has teenagers judging and comparing themselves to models to obtain “ideal beauty,” which is supposedly a thin body in tight-fitting clothing and layers of cosmetics used to disguise what truly matters – natural beauty.

This piece spoke to me, and I realize that Brielle is right. Many teenagers nowadays are going to extremes to reach “perfection” by starving themselves. Teenagers are being brainwashed to buy unnecessary products and spend endless hours obsessing over artificial beauty.

I really hope that women everywhere will see that they are beautiful, no matter what the magazines or advertisements seem to say. Beauty isn’t defined by how thin you are or by how much makeup you wear. Beauty is defined by who you are as a person. We can’t let the media manipulate us and determine how beautiful we are. As a growing population of beautiful young women, we can overcome this “beast” together.