Double-standards for women's appearance need to end

I SAW an ad recently for make-up and deportment classes for girls as young as 13.

I SAW an ad recently for make-up and deportment classes for girls as young as 13.

The ad claimed the skills would help young women in all aspects of their lives, including their career goals.

I have no doubt this is true.

I know that women are frequently judged on their appearance.

I know that certain behaviours in women are socially unacceptable and there are different standards for women than for men.

Most people I meet have no problem with that.

But I know too many intelligent, beautiful young women who feel they cannot leave the house without their "face" on.

Most of the women and men I know are complicit in spreading the myth that the female form is hairless. They support the lie that breasts remain perky for a woman's entire life.

They maintain that a woman has rosier cheeks, longer eyelashes, porcelain skin and neat eyebrows.

And a woman will go through incredible pain, waste hours of her day and spend hundreds of her hard-earned dollars to maintain this myth - because the alternative is seen as ugly and abnormal.

These beliefs are passed down from generation to generation.

I'm here to tell the young girls of today that women's faces don't need to be painted over.

That there is nothing ugly or wrong about the bodies they were born with.

They don't need to change a thing to find love or a successful career.

Because one day I hope that will be true.