This news anchor didn’t wear makeup on-air for a week, and her beauty experiment will inspire you

Today in femme-spiration: a newscaster skipped the makeup for a week, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive.

Female newscasters face a lot of pressure to look “put together,” and not just from their networks. Since the dawn of television news, (let’s be real, the dawn of civilization) women have been held to ridiculously high beauty standards. In the world of broadcast news, a full-face beatdown is considered a requirement of the job. Grand Rapids, Michigan reporter Kamady Rudd recently performed her own experiment to challenge the beauty norm, skipping hair and makeup on-air for a week.

Women who appear on morning news programs show up to the studio hours before sunrise, and spend more time in the makeup chair than their male counterparts. Aside from a bit of powder, maybe some concealer or foundation, male newscasters don’t have to perform this ritual. (However, some male BBC newscasters recently took pay cuts to protest the inequality, but we’ve still got a long way to go.)

According to Glamour, Kamady’s makeup-free experiment was inspired by a study she found on how a woman’s appearance can affect their capability in the workforce. After testing her experiment for a week, Kamady was surprised to see that she received overwhelmingly positive responses. In many cases, viewers didn’t notice or mind her bare face and low-maintenance hair.

The reporter shared on Instagram:

"I was a guinea pig in my own experiment! This week I didn’t wear any makeup on air. I wanted to see how it would affect my confidence level, and wanted to see if I’d get any negative feedback. Good news!! Everyone was sweet, supportive and kind! My confidence on air didn’t change, to be honest, I totally forgot about my bare face once my day really began. In conclusion... no makeup (for me) = nothing different."

Kamady’s long brown hair, great bone structure, clear skin, and perfectly shaped eyebrows do work in her favor. That said, it sucks that women in the public eye are trained to brace themselves for haters. Kamady explained to Glamour that she expected to get a few insults about her appearance, however, she got a flood of compliments instead.

She told the magazine what she hopes people get out of her experiment:

"I hope women, especially young girls, can look at this and know that they don’t have to be ‘on’ all the time. I really wanted to prove to myself that I could cover a story with as much focus on the actual story as normal, without worrying about my appearance. That is what local news is about. I want to make sure I’m giving people my best effort in the morning, no matter what. I’m all for makeup, or no makeup. Whatever you want to wear is, and should always be, totally up to you."

Kamady in her typical on-air face, looking gorgeous.

Kamady sans makeup, looking just as gorgeous.

Off-duty and fancy-free.

Moral of the story: do you, whether it means a fully snatched face or not a stitch of product. Your choice might help someone else find their own confidence.

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