Acceptance

Hi everyone. I am Arianna, a young adult, student, daughter and sister who just happened to be born with a rare medical condition. My condition, Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome, does not define me, but rather I define it

In my college studies thus far, I dabbled in studies of the various ways in which the mass media promotes unrealistic standards of “beauty” for both girls and boys to live up to. As I have raised my own attunement to the injurious messages of ads, television commercials, movies etc. being displayed to our society, I find myself passionate about raising awareness that people in all shapes, sizes and forms are beautiful. This may sound seemingly cliché, and perhaps it is, but when is the last time you saw a disabled person in a magazine ad for a high end fashion line? Sure, small strides are being made every now and then, but not enough progress has occurred yet.

My point is this, the mass media can be harmful to the average person’s psych, but those who are born disfigured or swathed in birthmarks are at risk for poor self-esteem issues as they are almost always ignored. The few times in which they are portrayed, they are not shown in a negative light in terms of their situation and their control over their everyday being. Change comes from recognition; hopefully the more aware people become to the detrimental message of people with disabilities of any kind being relayed to society, the more change will incur. 

I would like this to be a space for people to come and feel uplifted, or somewhat inspired to be confident in their own skin mo matter how different they may look or feel. Welcome, the name of this page translates into "still beautiful."