What we can learn from how blind women see beauty

If you ask women about their physical body insecurities, they’ll likely respond with aspects of their bodies they can see (even if the rest of the world can’t). But how would you define beauty or insecurities if you couldn’t see at all? That’s exactly what Dove aimed to answer in their powerful new video.

The video, which is captioned “How do you know you’re beautiful if you can’t see your reflection in the mirror?” features three Swedish women — Anna Bergholz, Naomi Alback, and Ida Ostlund — who were asked for their perspectives on beauty. All of these women are blind — Bergholz for 13 years, Ostlund since birth, and Alback for 15 years.

At first, the women do mention body insecurities — a flat chin, gaining weight, eyes that don’t look “super great,” being too short or not slim enough. They also mention that being blind carries with it a whole host of body esteem issues.

Alback mentions that it’s difficult to know how to feel when you can’t look at yourself in the mirror. “Particularly at the beginning, I didn’t have very good self-esteem,” she explains.

“For a long period after I became blind, I automatically checked myself in the mirror,” Bergholz says. “As if it were second nature. And it took a very long time before I stopped doing that. Now, I think that it is one of the things I like about not seeing.”

What these women go onto explain is that for them, beauty has become more of a feeling.

Bergholz, pictured above, feels beautiful on the days when she feels like life is fun.

“If I’m in love,” said Alback. “It comes from within. If you radiate warmth, humility, and love, then you’re beautiful to me.”

“I feel beautiful when I’m energetic, when I’m feeling good, when I’m feeling strong,” says Ostlund. “When it feels as if I’m in the right place, doing the right things; meaningful things, I automatically feel beautiful.”

These women are clearly beautiful inside and out, and they have given us a MAJOR takeaway: that beauty is not a physical attribute, it’s a feeling.

Thanks, Dove, for tugging at our heartstrings once again and thanks to these amazing women for reminding us to find the beauty in how we feel. Check out the amazing ad here: