True Beauty

Every girl wants to be beautiful, so they can be accepted by others and desired. No girl wants to be the “ugly duckling.” When that is the case, no one looks at you or speaks to you. It’s as if you are invisible. That’s the kiss of shame for girls who are judged inferior, based on the beauty of other girls.

Pauline is well aware of how people judge, based on appearances.

* * *

Pauline knows she isn’t beautiful. She knows she is at the bottom of the class compared to the other girls. Pauline has come to this conclusion because when boys look at her, they don’t act like they do when they see a girl they find attractive. Most of the time, they look past her, focusing on the prettiest or most popular girls.

Of course, this treatment is unsettling to Pauline, who tries everything to improve her appearance. She changes her hair style, curls it, cuts it, even dyes it. Yet, none of that, including wearing make-up changes the impression boys or other classmates have of her. They chuckle at her attempt to look beautiful. It’s obvious by their reaction that: she’s “a loser.”

Frustrated, Pauline contemplates suicide. What’s the point of being alive when “I’m already dead.” Determined to “end it all,” she decides she wants to do it in style. It has to be an event no one forgets. To get ideas on how to “end it with style” she goes to the library. There must be such a book!

Once in the library, she peruses the shelves to find books on suicide. There are several books on suicide – just none that share how to end it with style. She’s disappointed. The thought of using a gun or a knife is way too gruesome. There must be a drug of some kind? Then, she thinks of the side effects. I don’t want to take anything that will make me sick or feel pain. It has to be something that’s quick. What about arsenic? I wonder if that’s quick? Or painful? How could you know? Once they’re dead, they can’t tell you! Pauline decides to sit at a nearby table to ponder this further.

At the end of the table, Pauline sees another girl reading, using her fingers. Pauline watches the girl’s lips move silently, while her fingers cross the page. She’s blind! Pauline assesses, as the girl silently reads in braille.

Pauline studies the girl for several minutes. She’s a very pretty girl, who will never know her beauty because she is blind. I have the gift of sight and here I am thinking about ending it all! How shallow of me! I’m sure this girl would choose sight over beauty any day. Pauline decides she will use her sight to create beauty. She asks if she can draw her picture? The girl is delighted that someone would choose her for a portrait.

Pauline makes a rough sketch and asks if the girl will return the next day so she can continue to work on her portrait. The girl tells her she’s in the library every day at this time. So for several days, Pauline worked on this portrait. By the end of the week, the portrait is complete. Pauline is very pleased, in fact surprised. She is impressed with how well the portrait looks and that she created it. Perhaps, that is because through the beauty of her heart, Pauline creates a beautiful portrait. The library wants to display it, which has both girls beaming. One, blind with a beautiful face, and the other with a beautiful heart.

“You are truly gifted.” The librarian tells Pauline as the blind girl listens and smiles, happy to have her portrait on display. This makes Pauline happy too.

Hearing she has talent gives her a feeling of self-respect she hadn’t known before. In the past she hadn’t taken her talent seriously. Now, she realizes that it expresses the beauty within her, and that makes her smile.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Pauline’s attitude toward the kids at school changes. She disregards their behavior, thinking instead that she is a beautiful person on the inside because of the art that she is creating everyday after school.

One day, she is called into the Principal’s office. Everyone in her class thinks Pauline is in trouble, making Pauline think the same. However, instead of a reprimand, Pauline is happy to see the Principal smiling at her!

“Pauline, I had no idea you are so talented!” He beams.

Pauline stares at him.

“I saw your picture at the library, and was so impressed. Naturally, I’m excited that it was a student from our school!” He tells her with a grin.

Pauline relaxes, happy that he likes her artwork.

“Pauline, do you have other artwork that can be displayed in the school halls? I promise, they’ll be framed and put under glass to protect them.”

Pauline is delighted to share her artwork, telling the Principal she’ll bring what she has. The next day, Pauline’s Art is hung near the school office, so teachers, parents, and visitors can see her artwork. It’s an impressive display that has many of the staff wanting to know more about Pauline and how she gets inspired to do such beautiful work.

The Principal recommends that an article about Pauline and her artwork get published in the school newspaper. Pauline openly shares that a blind girl helped her see her own gift. Drawing beautiful pictures is her way of sharing the beauty in her own heart. The newspaper article becomes “The Buzz,” as everyone wants clamors to become friends with Pauline. She’s become a school celebrity! Pauline is taken aback, never thinking anything like this could ever happen to her. With gladness in her heart, she is grateful she didn’t “end it all,” thanking the blind girl for helping her see her gift instead.

Pauline’s popularity soars when the local television station does a broadcast about her. Her classmates now idolize her, making her one of the most popular girls in the school. The boys not only look her way, but several have already asked her to the upcoming high school dance! Pauline is flabbergasted by all this attention! Naturally, she’s “loving it!”

Her new popularity has her at wits end, wondering which boy she should accept. While contemplating the matter, she is approached by the most popular boy in the school – the captain of the football team. He’s a tall, handsome boy, who is the dream of every girl in the school. Her eyes meet his, as he boldly asks to take her to the dance. Her mouth drops.

“You’re asking me?” She blurts.

He nods, eyes gleaming.

“Why? You can go with the prettiest girl in the school!”

“But you are the prettiest girl” He declares.

She glares at him, as if catching him in a lie.

“Maybe you’re not the prettiest girl by outward appearances.” He confesses. “However, you have what a lot of girls with pretty faces don’t have.”

“Yeah. What’s that?”

“True beauty. I’ll take a girl with a beautiful heart any day over a shallow girl with a pretty face.”

She looks at him and smiles. Not only is he a good-looking boy, he’s also smart!

“My beautiful heart says yes!’” she tells him enthusiastically.

He squeezes her hand.

“Ok. It’s a date!” He tells her, smiling.

When Pauline looks back at this time in her life, she realizes that “Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.” For Pauline, her beauty radiated when she confidently accepted herself.