When I see young people, everyone wants to be the same... you should have lips like this, you should have breasts of plastic, you should have this, you should look like that... everyone is the same. I used to think beauty was something that can be measured, that you're either beautiful or you're not. After I got burnt that made me see people in a totally different way. And I realised beauty was in the way that people frown, or the way they pronounce a certain word, or some of their gestures, or just sometimes the way their mouth forms around a laugh, the little creases at the edges of someones eyes, all these tiny little things, and even little flaws, that make a person so gorgeous. I started noticing those tiny little things in myself as well. So I would sometimes look at my fingers and say, 'Wow, they are crooked little fingers' 'but gosh, aren't they beautiful.' Maybe its the way that I smile when I'm really, really happy. Or the way my eyes squint when I'm trying to see and I'm not wearing my glasses. Little things that I found beautiful in myself. We're these personalities trapped in a vessel. And things happen to that vessel... we age and we get scratches and burns and birthmarks and everything in between. And it doesn't make anyone less human. It makes them more human in fact. Because in that little scar, that little freckle, that little wrinkle, all of those little things... it's a tiny story of what your body has seen and what your body has done. And I'm lucky that I still have eyes, ears, a mouth and a nose, and all of the things that make me experience the world as I am. No matter what happens to my body the fact that it's still here and that I am still allowed to live inside it, and do things with it, and say things with it, and make things with it... that is incredible. So I always remind myself it's about what you can do. I think for young people it is very important that they are proud of themselves. I say to my grandchildren: 'Be yourself.' 'Don't think about what other people think about you.' 'You are a beautiful person and you are young' 'and you don't need all these things' It's not so important to be beautiful and things like that. It's important that you are smiling and have a good life, with yourself, huh. I think so. The important thing is that you should be a good person and give a lot of love to other people, and you'll get it back. I've learnt very valuable lessons about beauty and about self acceptance. My friends, straight after the fire, that they took my hand and they kissed my cheek and they smiled at me, and they just... and they treated me as if I was exactly the same person. And that acknowledgement of me still being me, that love, unconditional love, was what made me accept myself and made me fight. I see my scars as travellers... travellers that have been with me since that night. They latched onto me and they've been with me ever since. And I see them as memories because these scars are evidence of something that I have survived. They tell a little story of what I have lived through and what I have learnt. And that's how I can look at them and say 'That's quite beautiful.' You must do what is best for you. Live a good life with yourself. Just inside yourself, be happy. That's a good life I think.
