True Beauty

What makes a person truly beautiful? Executive producers Tyra Banks ("The Tyra Banks Show," "America's Next Top Model") and Ashton Kutcher (executive producer of "Punk'd" and "Beauty and the Geek") re-define the concept of beauty in a wildly revealing new ABC series, "True Beauty," premiering, MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2009 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

The series will determine the "True Beauty" of six stunning females and four handsome males who will live together in a spectacular Los Angeles mansion as they undergo a series of challenges to determine who is truly the most beautiful.

The gorgeous contestants assume they're being judged solely on their outer appearance. They're only half right; outer beauty is one component the judges are looking for, but contestants are also being evaluated -- unbeknownst to them -- for their INNER beauty as well when they're put through scenarios and situations that require them to make moral decisions.

Each episode will showcase an outer beauty and an inner beauty challenge, during which contestants will be judged on everything from how well they perform in photo shoots to how well they respect their elders. The three judges will observe and critique the contestants' behavior and eliminate one person each week. Only after someone is eliminated will the truth about the show be revealed to him/her, as they watch a video montage of their behavior captured by a hidden camera during the shoot. At the end of eight episodes, one winner will be declared, a person who is truly beautiful inside and out.

I saw a preview for this show the other day and it really got me thinking. With all that is going on in this world, and how beauty has been perceived with images of what we should look like flashed all over television and magazines its about time that there was something out there to show that someone who simply has looks may look great on the outside, but is often very lacking on the inside. You know as the old saying goes, "Beauty is only skin deep." Yes being beautiful on the outside is a great thing, but looks fade and you are often left with a hollow soul. To me looks are great, of course you want to look at someone and feel at least a tinge of attraction. But what are looks without character, honor, loyalty, humor, kindness, security, flexibility, patience, respect, understanding, faith, and so on.

Beauty they say is in the eye of the beholder. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that being perceived as ugly can seriously detract from one's quality of life, while being attractive can bring a whole raft of benefits. The hospital I work at has a specialty of working with craniofacial kids. Children born with different facial anomalys fly in from all over the country to see our doctors in hopes for a better look, a better appeal to be more "normal."As the surgery saves the lives of these patients, patients are thankful for it. Patients with clefts and facial deformities due to rare syndromes also have their lives transformed by craniofacial surgery. Children with Apert's syndrome and similar rare diseases find that their faces become physically deformed. Being stared at in the street is often the least of their concerns. It is the sense of being differentiated from 'normal' looking people that hurts the most.

So what is beauty, who gets to decide?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Maryanne Williamson