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Student Captures What Happens When People Are Told They Are Beautiful
How would you react if someone told you that you’re beautiful? 18-year-old Shea Glover, a highschool student from Chicago, conducted a social experiment to find out. She posed people in front of her camera and then told them “I’m taking pictures of things I find beautiful.”
The responses are touching. “I conducted an independent project which evidently turned into a social experiment regarding beauty,” Glover writes on YouTube. “I want to clarify that my intentions were not to get a reaction out of people. I was simply filming beauty and this is the result.”
More info: YouTube (h/t: aplus)
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What do you think ?
MarySaslow 10 years ago
I'm 73 years old. From my vantage point all of these faces are very beautiful. They are of young people, full of life. Please enjoy your young beauty. When you are older you will find photos of yourself in your twenties and thirties and you will see for the first time how beautiful you were. Maybe no one told you then and you did not know. Maybe your sister was the beautiful one, or an actress or actor, or someone "popular" in your school. Don't fall for that. You will regret it later, when you are not as beautiful (but still active and presentable :-) ) and you wish you had known
EvanCreem 10 years ago
Mary - You are still beautiful and full of life! Age is beauty. The oldest trees...beautiful. The well worn rocks and ancient monoliths on beaches...beautiful. Age has no bearing on beauty. But your statement is also beautiful. Have a lovely day!
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EllaLink 10 years ago
made me cry seeing most of them smile and made me cry to see the sadness in some of others' eyes. you can tell they were maybe never told that.
KevReed 10 years ago
exactly. society these days makes so many people feel guarded, unless they are extremely conformist and look like how the mainstream portray beauty. note how most of these people have created their own identity outside of that. we need to shift away from the corporate owned medias slant on the world and indoctrination and hypersexulisation of the minds youth, it is destroying us
Load More Replies...
LukeCage 10 years ago
The one girl who got angry, kind of hit home for me. Sometimes you come from a hard place and when you actually do receive a compliment on how you look or something you do, you think it's another form of ridicule.
NiamhMcKinney 10 years ago
That's exactly what I would do. I dot know why I don't think someone would actually genuinely compliment me like that girl did
Load More Replies...
KatyaChaykovska 10 years ago
At first I was watching this video and I was just enjoying it. But then, I started to tear up and ended up crying through about the last quarter of it. You can tell by some of their reactions that some of these kids hardly ever heard a simple compliment like that, who knows, maybe never. I hit the lowest point of my life, mentally, a month ago when I attempted suicide (I am a graduate student, but the reasons were unrelated to school or age). The next day, I understood why so many others are suffering. We all want love, yet we're all too afraid, or too lazy, or too busy to give it. Human beings need warmth and affirmation from each other in order to thrive. It is so important for young people to realize that they are beautiful and that they are capable of giving and receiving love. They need to know that they can do it. I know that even if I have not yet gotten what I deserve, I have the time to be there for others in the meantime. Amazing project, and a warm person behind it.
DeeAnn 10 years ago
Katya, you would be amazed at the suffering people go through on a daily basis, from kids who don't feel loved, to spouses who don't get enough affection, to people who feel too weird to fit in..... I'm beginning to think that maybe the solution is to look outside, help others less fortunate, and maybe their gratitude would warm our hearts. Maybe it's better to search for the fuzzy feeling that comes when you know you did good for someone.
Load More Replies...
LauraLettinga 10 years ago
this has actually made me to the point of tears of mixed emotion. I feel amazing that all of these people are being told that they are beautiful and most of them are really pleasantly surprised and get bashful over it. But then i feel heart broken over the people who don't know how or react or react in such a way that they've been over the words 'i think you are beautiful'. I feel especially saddened by the girl who can only seem respond in a threatening way and it makes me think how little self worth over herself and its probably come from people close to telling her that she's ugly or feels that she is being conceived as weak if she looks or feels beautiful. I wish people we're told that they are beautiful more often than ugly for being themselves. The world would be so much better for it in my opinion.
AimeeLong 10 years ago
What a beautiful piece. I'm also BLOWN away at how every single teenager in this video looks like an individual. I could not say the same about my high school. This school looks like an awesome place to thrive and be yourself. I wish you all so much success in life!
SarahChang 10 years ago
Wait, I completely understand what you're trying to say but I don't think it's fair to say that just because maybe at your high school the students were all aesthetically similar - whether it was all blond hair, all brunette hair, all boring, all whatever - that they are less "individual" than the ones in this video, because these students have colored hair and facial piercings and different genetics. Everyone is a person, regardless of their looks, because believing in the contrary is what starts us down a bad road of prejudice. :)
Load More Replies...
AmberReedus 10 years ago
It was heartbreaking to watch that one girl respond with such anger to this. She responded how I likely would have (well, maybe not quite as violent, but I would have immediately felt insulted, and as if I was the butt of a mean joke.....seriously.) I knew exactly why she was angry. I understood it completely. And that is just so very sad. This was a lovely project. I am glad that it made the majority smile.
MarySaslow 10 years ago
I'm 73 years old. From my vantage point all of these faces are very beautiful. They are of young people, full of life. Please enjoy your young beauty. When you are older you will find photos of yourself in your twenties and thirties and you will see for the first time how beautiful you were. Maybe no one told you then and you did not know. Maybe your sister was the beautiful one, or an actress or actor, or someone "popular" in your school. Don't fall for that. You will regret it later, when you are not as beautiful (but still active and presentable :-) ) and you wish you had known
EvanCreem 10 years ago
Mary - You are still beautiful and full of life! Age is beauty. The oldest trees...beautiful. The well worn rocks and ancient monoliths on beaches...beautiful. Age has no bearing on beauty. But your statement is also beautiful. Have a lovely day!
Load More Replies... EllaLink 10 years ago
made me cry seeing most of them smile and made me cry to see the sadness in some of others' eyes. you can tell they were maybe never told that.
KevReed 10 years ago
exactly. society these days makes so many people feel guarded, unless they are extremely conformist and look like how the mainstream portray beauty. note how most of these people have created their own identity outside of that. we need to shift away from the corporate owned medias slant on the world and indoctrination and hypersexulisation of the minds youth, it is destroying us
Load More Replies... LukeCage 10 years ago
The one girl who got angry, kind of hit home for me. Sometimes you come from a hard place and when you actually do receive a compliment on how you look or something you do, you think it's another form of ridicule.
NiamhMcKinney 10 years ago
That's exactly what I would do. I dot know why I don't think someone would actually genuinely compliment me like that girl did
Load More Replies... KatyaChaykovska 10 years ago
At first I was watching this video and I was just enjoying it. But then, I started to tear up and ended up crying through about the last quarter of it. You can tell by some of their reactions that some of these kids hardly ever heard a simple compliment like that, who knows, maybe never. I hit the lowest point of my life, mentally, a month ago when I attempted suicide (I am a graduate student, but the reasons were unrelated to school or age). The next day, I understood why so many others are suffering. We all want love, yet we're all too afraid, or too lazy, or too busy to give it. Human beings need warmth and affirmation from each other in order to thrive. It is so important for young people to realize that they are beautiful and that they are capable of giving and receiving love. They need to know that they can do it. I know that even if I have not yet gotten what I deserve, I have the time to be there for others in the meantime. Amazing project, and a warm person behind it.
DeeAnn 10 years ago
Katya, you would be amazed at the suffering people go through on a daily basis, from kids who don't feel loved, to spouses who don't get enough affection, to people who feel too weird to fit in..... I'm beginning to think that maybe the solution is to look outside, help others less fortunate, and maybe their gratitude would warm our hearts. Maybe it's better to search for the fuzzy feeling that comes when you know you did good for someone.
Load More Replies... LauraLettinga 10 years ago
this has actually made me to the point of tears of mixed emotion. I feel amazing that all of these people are being told that they are beautiful and most of them are really pleasantly surprised and get bashful over it. But then i feel heart broken over the people who don't know how or react or react in such a way that they've been over the words 'i think you are beautiful'. I feel especially saddened by the girl who can only seem respond in a threatening way and it makes me think how little self worth over herself and its probably come from people close to telling her that she's ugly or feels that she is being conceived as weak if she looks or feels beautiful. I wish people we're told that they are beautiful more often than ugly for being themselves. The world would be so much better for it in my opinion.
AimeeLong 10 years ago
What a beautiful piece. I'm also BLOWN away at how every single teenager in this video looks like an individual. I could not say the same about my high school. This school looks like an awesome place to thrive and be yourself. I wish you all so much success in life!
SarahChang 10 years ago
Wait, I completely understand what you're trying to say but I don't think it's fair to say that just because maybe at your high school the students were all aesthetically similar - whether it was all blond hair, all brunette hair, all boring, all whatever - that they are less "individual" than the ones in this video, because these students have colored hair and facial piercings and different genetics. Everyone is a person, regardless of their looks, because believing in the contrary is what starts us down a bad road of prejudice. :)
Load More Replies... AmberReedus 10 years ago
It was heartbreaking to watch that one girl respond with such anger to this. She responded how I likely would have (well, maybe not quite as violent, but I would have immediately felt insulted, and as if I was the butt of a mean joke.....seriously.) I knew exactly why she was angry. I understood it completely. And that is just so very sad. This was a lovely project. I am glad that it made the majority smile.
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