Extra, extra! Read all about it?

Usually, I don't even bother looking at the headlines presented as "news" on the home page of Yahoo.  The titles advertising these poor grammar-filled articles typically look like this:

Breaking News! Anne changes her name to @nne

Breaking News! @nne debuts a bold new hair color


Breaking News! The artist formerly known as @nne changes bold new hair color!


This just in! A-nizzle gets a daring new haircut to go along with new hair color!


What was she thinking?  A-niz spotted wearing (gasp!) pajamas while reaching out her front door to get her morning newspaper!

Have you heard?  Rumors of A-niz's divorce! (wait....she's not married...Rumors of A-niz's secret E-harmony relationship!)

Scandalous! @-nizzle's picture on the cover of 17! Magazine photoshopped! The horror!

Except they're articles are about people like Hilary Clinton, Rhianna, or Justin Bieber.  Occasionally, for entertainment's sake I'll click on a seemingly interesting article about a woolly-mammoth spotting, or houses with the coolest staircases.  But even in those articles, the two most entertaining things are the pictures and the comments, because let's just face it....whoever writes for Yahoo News sucks.  It's just not worth the click.

Today, however, I was immediately drawn in by an article titled: "Web's disturbing 'Am I ugly?' trend".  While I was still unimpressed in terms of writing skills by this article, it did it's primary job: my attention was successfully grabbed.  The term "disturbing" in the article's title was quite accurate.  Basically, I learned today that there is an up and coming trend in which middle-school/early highschool aged girls (and some boys) are posting videos of themselves asking the question: "Am I ugly?".  Can I just say: SAD! :(   I mean the questions here are endless.  Where are the parents? Why are videos like this allowed on YouTube? Shouldn't there be SOME kind of filter?  What does this say about society (the media)and the expectations we place on people's physical appearances?  What does this say about the impact of technology?  And again, WHERE are the parents of these children? Why do they have unsupervised access to webcams and the internet?  Don't they (the adults in these kids' lives) know how many creeps there are out there, preying on innocent young people with low-self esteem?  The questions go on and on.  The point is, this is ridiculous.  Aesthetics have become so unbelievably highly placed on the priority list.  People are so concerned with how they look that they spend hours wrapped up with technology: getting distorted guidelines for what constitutes beauty and then posting videos asking millions of strangers if they've met the mark.  I like a comment that one person posted on this article. It was something along the lines of: "I miss the 80's. The time before all this YouTube and other technological crap.  We looked ridiculous and still considered ourselves beautiful and didn't care what other people thought because we were just out having fun and living, instead of being cooped up inside on the computer!" Ahhhh....there are just so many things I want to write about this article.  But the main thing is this:  Beauty comes from within.  No person can define another person's beauty.  "It's what's inside that counts."  Once you know that and focus and being happy and making sure that you're living the kind of life that makes you feel good inside, well...it'll shine through to the outside, and that's what makes a person beautiful.  It's so sad that these young people who are posting these videos haven't been taught that by their parents and teachers and are instead getting their lessons on beauty from other sources, like the media, and then feeling the need to subject themselves to cyber-bullying via YouTube. I'm so glad that I have a father who taught me (and reminds me often) that what really matters in life is the kind of person you are, not the kind of person other people think (or tell you) you are.  Man...I really could write an entire essay on this.  But, I'll get off my soap-box now.  Just know, you're all beautiful.  And if you need a reminder, watch this video: