Finding Our Inner Beauty

This year’s People Magazine’s “100 Most Beautiful People” issue, which came out on Friday, April 28, featured Angelina Jolie at the top of the list. Half of the “Brangelina” duo, who, along with their children, are considered “the world’s most beautiful family,” Jolie is not only beautiful on the outside, but on the inside as well. Now that we are moving further into the twenty-first century, it is time to start praising people more for their inner-beauty than their outer.

Judge people by their outer beauty? In high school? Yeah right. Our society is used to judging people based on their looks first, they’re personalities maybe second. After all, it is the outer shell that we see on everyone. But as the saying goes, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Too bad we can’t see the inner beauty of people when we look at them. We must get to know them first to find out what they’re really like. And we may find that not only are some people more beautiful on the inside than the outside, but that some are more beautiful on the outside than the inside.

But in high school, where clicks are formed freshman year and last through graduation, many students don’t take the time to look beyond the cover. Some are just too busy to, with their friends, clubs, activities, and homework. But I’m sad to say that some just don’t care too. They see what they want to see, and nothing more.

Remember the movie “Shallow Hall?” Jack Black’s character had a spell placed on him that made him see people from the inside out. The fat girl with the heart of gold was suddenly the beauty queen, and the beautiful girls with the snobby attitudes were hideous. I wish someone could place this spell on every teenager entering high school. It would make finding friends so much easier if we could tell whose personalities matched ours just by looking at them.

But this isn’t the way people were intended to be. Perhaps the best part of forging friendships is learning what someone is really like and finding out what you have in common.

As you start school this year, consider what type of person you want to be and what kind of friendships you want to make. Then make it a point to get to know people of many different shapes, sizes and colors so you can find those that match your inner beauty rather than your outer. These steps are what form the bonds that can last a lifetime.