Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lauren Conrad made sure that message was clear when creating her latest book, “Beauty.”
Clearly a female-orientated book, women of all ages can look to it for tips about everything from living a healthy lifestyle to what ingredients to avoid in face wash.
Conrad is undoubtedly someone to look up to. She has her life together and she made it on her own, well, with the help of MTV reality shows. She’s only 26-years-old yet has been in two reality shows spanning five years, has an affordable fashion line at Kohl’s, a high-end fashion line called Paper Crown, has written seven books and is recognized as a New York Times Best Selling Author.
Behind all the glitz and glam of her Hollywood lifestyle, Conrad is someone to admire because she has gone through similar struggles facing many young people today.
“At 18 I was cut off financially,” Conrad told Seventeen Magazine in an interview. “Seventeen was a happy time for me, but 18 was hard. People think that I’ve had it easy, but I haven’t had it as easy as you think. When I went off to college, I wasn’t going to class in Louis Vuitton. There were definitely times when my bank account was zero. I was financially independent, but I wasn’t exactly living a lavish life. My dad was really adamant about that. He’d say ‘You’re going to go to college and live it like everyone else, because if you want to make your own decisions, you need to support yourself, too.’”
She makes the point several times throughout the book that she doesn’t think people need to be like her, but rather hopes to show readers how they can accept themselves.
“We’re all surrounded by absolutely unrealistic ideas of beauty, because those girls in the photos, well, they’re not real,” Conrad said in her book. “They are the result of a hairstylist, a makeup artist, a manicurist, a personal stylist, a tailor, good lighting, correct angles, retouching … And to get that one photo that makes the cut, sometimes a thousand or more need to be taken. So look at them for artistic inspiration only – for cool eye-shadow color combos, for blush placement, for unexpected ways to wear your hair – but please don’t think for a second that you should look like them. Because nobody does, not even them.”
What’s great about the book is she’s not afraid to admit horrific beauty mistakes she’s made in the past. She’s also open about everything she has to share.
Hearing celebrities say they have skin problems always seems like a desperate plea to make them see “normal.” So when Conrad shared this exact information in her book, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
As I read on I realized we’ve actually gone through similar skin conditions that can typically make a person insecure. The fact she’s willing to share this makes me feel accepted in a way.
Beauty is the underlying theme of the book. With that, she wanted everyone to realize we’re all beautiful in our own ways.
To help promote her theme, Conrad used models of all shapes, sizes, skin tones and hair color to complete the book. While she is pictured in some of the images, she wanted to be sure the entire book wasn’t just pictures of herself.
“While I hope you find the how-tos and lists helpful, I?don’t want you to follow the advice thinking you should look like me–that’s why my face isn’t the only one in this book,” she said. “I’ve learned what beauty means to me and how to look and feel like the best version of myself, but I?have also rejoiced in the fact that we don’t all look the same.”
4/5 stars
Review by Savannah Sawyer, Assistant Features Editor.