The Business of Beauty is Very Ugly​ | Carrie Hammer | TEDxSantaBarbara

are you beautiful think about it it's a simple question are you beautiful most women the answer is no doves research found only four percent of women self-identify as beautiful how could that possibly be the images presented to us are not real they're manufactured and who does this serve the beauty industry they're here to help you spend your money they're here to help you fix it they're here to help you fit in i as the magazine cover say look a decade younger your weight - eight lose the five fix the flab and my personal favorite so you ate a cupcake fast moves to burn it off this is what our average magazine stand looks like and it's working we spend more on beauty than on education and that's just beauty that's not to mention fashion combined there are 1.3 trillion dollar industry who've made a business out of setting unreal expectations of beauty and then profiting and exploiting thin securities that they've helped create the business of beauty is ugly growing up I always felt left out I never feel like I fit the mold and this always left me devastated my middle school kept bat it back issues of every fashion magazine and I love running library every day after school I love flipping through the glossy pages but after a while I noticed I didn't look like those girls not her not her not her kind of like her not not her I kept looking looking looking I didn't see myself reflected my crazy curly hair my freckles my curves my big ears then weren't they're not they're not in not beautiful so what did I do but the magazines told me to do of course I bow down to the Beauty Bibles start chemically straightening my hair which is just as terrible as it sounds for hours in a hair salon with chemicals on my scalp burning retraining the cuticle of my hair to be beautiful and my hair after one of these episodes was so beautiful that it started falling out in clumps that was interesting and then I started just hating myself I started hating my skin color my thighs I even started walking sideways on my mom's treadmill thinking that would do something about it the thin thigh plan was ill-conceived and definitely not necessary when I look back on it so why am I telling you all of this women not feeling beautiful has huge dangerous echoing effects on our society eight out of ten women opt out of important life events when they don't feel beautiful not feeling beautiful means not feeling powerful eight out of ten young girls self-select themselves out of sports activities or even raising their hand in class because they don't want to draw attention to the way they look this affects every aspect of our society so when I first left advertising to start my fashion line early in my career I was asked to style a hair show in New Jersey yes foot-in-the-door my first brush with the beauty industry I showed up at this hair show was at a huge Convention Center I was lost I didn't know where to go I didn't know what to do I was looking for the runway finally found it I was introduced to my team hair makeup stylist models one of my models was getting her hair done and she looked young extraordinarily young she's getting her hair done and I asked her she was scribbling furiously on a notepad I said what are you working on my algebra homework your model in this show uh-huh how old are you 12 my god she was 12 working on her algebra homework but after they did her hair and her makeup and I begrudging ly styled and dressed her her after I reluctantly styled and dressed her she looked like she was literally 30 and that was the moment that I realized that this is so often the image being portrayed to us and this is the unrealistic standard of beauty that we are often being held to and this is what I call the beauty gap where it is no longer about illusion and it is closer to delusion a one-dimensional view and standard of beauty that is minute that is provided through manipulation smoke lighting mirrors the beauty gap is the space in between the unrealistic standards of beauty that we're being provided and where our true beauty actually lies what's in between is unrealistic image is images that actually don't exist in real life what's in between extreme Photoshop body doubles underaged models being marketed to women let me give you a few examples recently a famous 70 something celebrity was photographed for the cover of a big magazine the photoshoot went off and images were brought back to the editor she took a look at them mm-hmm these won't do her legs look too old yeah she's in her 70s so the only solution because they were beyond photoshop's to repair a leg double a younger leg model was called in photographed and her legs were superimposed over the stars for the cover deceiving everyone who walked by and certainly deceiving my mother who doubled down on Pilates after seeing the article this is common in fashion it's called Frankenstein Photoshop using one model's legs or arms on another's and what this suggests to us is that we're not beautiful as a whole not even the woman on the cover of the magazine and this solution follows us into video we know photos have been manipulated for for decades now but did you know that video has the same Photoshop like tools frame by frame you can edit a video and we do removing wrinkles under eye circles removing inches we've already seen this go wrong recently a famous singer had to have her team remove a video because her edited team had removed 3 inches from her waist and lengthened her legs and usually we wouldn't even notice but the two videos side by side make it painfully obvious this beauty gap usually slips by and we just think this is beauty but this time it got caught and these days it even follows us on social media even the most personal photos now might not be real with image editing apps readily available one of the top paid apps in 80 countries is called face tune face Tunes motto don't wait for the perfect photo face tune it face tune does your friend look have a banging body on the beach so do I in this photo boom-boom-boom on on facebook and instagram take your feed with a grain of salt even celebrities admit that they often use apps like these before they post so the point of all this is this delusion is not the exception it's the rule 99% of advertising images are retouched the altering of these images alters our minds and these images don't exist in the real world when I worked in advertising I could never find clothes I wanted to wear to work I never found things that felt like me that felt like they fit so I left my job and started my own clothing line carry hammer hmm I want to start a clothing line for professional women to provide clothes that felt powerful beautiful feminine professional when it came time to launch my brand at New York Fashion Week in 2014 I didn't feel comfortable sending traditional models down the runway my clients are professional women role models I thought about it long and hard and then I had a huge revelation for my runway during New York Fashion Week we would be doing role models not runway models so I called up 25 of my role model client is it Hey want to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week and I found out the answer to that question is a really quick oh my gosh yes that first show we had CEOs executives philanthropists activists some of the most amazing women and as you can see here their beauty exude 'add because it was true it came from their passion their purpose their accomplishments they didn't have to fake it they were the real deal in their first show one of our role models is a famous doctor and sex therapist she rocked that runway she just happens to be in a wheelchair dr. Daniel J puck is a great client good friend of mine and she has never been defined by her disability like my curly hair does not define me but we found out later that that was a landmark moment because she was the first-ever model on the runway during New York Fashion Week that happened to be in a wheelchair and it went all around the world as the news outlet outlets caught fire emails poured in to Danielle and I saying thank you I've never felt beautiful I've never seen myself reflected on the runway I want to model now I'll redo one email that particularly touched me hi Carrie my name is Karen and I'm 30 years old living in Los Angeles I read an article about your fashion show which showcased Danielle Shay Peck seeing her on that runway made me teary-eyed because it boosted my self-confidence something I'd lacked prior I was so thrilled and moved that a designer welcome someone with a disability on the runway you don't see that and I hope it opens doors for people with disabilities beauty comes in all shapes and sizes there's absolutely no right or wrong two years ago I contracted bacterial meningitis and in order to save my life doctors had to amputate all four of my limbs I'm now using my life using prosthetic arms and legs for independence I still have a hard time dealing with my appearance I used to have so much self-confidence but lately I've been afraid to accept myself I have a passion for fashion so hopefully one day I get to show the world why can't people with disabilities like me be beautiful model thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration take care Karen this was just one email out of hundreds and it was emails like this that made me realize that this was role models not runway models was so much more than just the runway this was changing people's lives we had gone viral that's the holy grail in advertising brands always try to aspire to do that but what they forget is to go viral you'll be a carrier cell for something greater for something bigger for something positive well my carrier cell is my fashion brand what I do is empower women change the global definition of beauty and close the beauty gap but I'm just one emerging designer launching in a sea of images but it started a movement and I call it the runway revolution and it's catching on there have now been more than 30 brands that have included diverse models in their shows and their advertisements yeah the likes of target anthropology Uniqlo the limited and even the Queen V herself Beyonce so you know we've made it combined these have multibillion-dollar media spends combined we can shift the beauty gap the runway revolution is about showing women you don't have to be one size one shape one color one ability to be beautiful beauty is an every single woman it's actually been staring us in the face this whole time be you be you - full beauty lies in what we do in the world not what we look like beauty's inner individuality in our differences beauty lies in our passion our purpose our accomplishments beauty lies in role models not runway models so what do we do about it be a role model be a role model for somebody in your life all of us are lead by positive example and show what true individualistic beauty looks like we vote with our dollar and right now we vote for beauty over education let's spend more on ourselves less on our selfies today I call for a new Beauty Constitution for the runway revolution we the people have the power to change the rules let's vote for brands that empower women no more extreme Photoshop no body doubles no underage women marketing no underage girls marketing to women the business of beauty is ugly but it doesn't have to be it's possible to make impossible Beauty a thing of the past but only if we demand it to make sure the industry and brands to make sure that the industry and brands here you share this message with your peers your friends your sisters your daughters an industry that loves a good makeover it's time to give ourselves one thank you very much you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 418,091

Rating: 4.8937359 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Activism, Beauty, Body, Fashion, Media

Id: j9vE4i017q4

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 21 2016