Pledge : 6

I pledge to set and own a standard of beauty that includes me at the center—imperfections and all—while making room for others to include themselves in their own standard.

“I would say that the worst thing that anyone has ever said to me is constantly telling me that I am not pretty,” Viola Davis says in an interview with Bazaar. She continues, “When you say that to someone, the unspoken word is that you’re not worthy because people put a value on prettiness and beauty.” Wooooo, chile. Although the depth, power, and impact of her words didn’t stop here, we have to sit with this for a minute. The danger of allowing other people to set the standard for beauty is that they may or may not include you in it. And if Davis is right, there is too much at stake to allow yourself not to know and feel that you are attractive, beautiful, or pretty. One solution that almost always guarantees you will be neither left out of the standard nor deemed unworthy is this: Create the standard, establishing yourself as a model of beauty. Do it boldly, without apology. But I think the real trick, the real flex, is to be so confident in your own skin, bones, and body that the beauty standards you set are big enough to include others at the center with you.