When I first started cocokind, I was SUPER insecure about my skin. People would question my ability to have a skincare company after seeing me in real life (with breakouts, acne scars, texture, etc.). Today, in my mid 30s, I credit cocokind for helping me feel confident in my skin; in the process of creating cocokind, I wanted to see someone accept “real skin”, so I became that person for myself. However, this doesn’t mean that I don’t feel insecure sometimes about my newly-forming fine lines, wrinkles, and textured skin.
I wonder though, would I have most of these insecurities if beauty filters didn’t exist? Every day when I open Instagram and TikTok, I’m seeing photos and videos of people with flawless features, and I’m micro-dosing on beauty standards that are damaging my self-perception.
Pick any beauty filter on social media (like the recently viral “Bold Glamour” filter) and it tells us that we should have perfect Westernized beauty standards like smooth skin, contoured faces, symmetry, bigger eyes, fuller lips, etc. Filters have become so prevalent and sophisticated that most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re seeing one. No wonder why we’re all rushing to the stores to buy, buy, buy.
No matter how hard we work on self-love, the voice in our head that is telling us “we’re not enough” is constantly re-fueled the moment we open our social media apps.
The cocokind team believes that beauty filters are an extremely dangerous threat to our mental health. After we did some research, we learned that statistics agree with us. I wanted to share some of these stats, which I found to be SO disturbing and scary.
In a survey conducted by ParentsTogether:
- 61% of teens said beauty filters make them feel worse about their appearance
- 63% of teens said they use beauty filters to "look more beautiful"
- 56% of teens said they use beauty filters to “hide the characteristics they don’t like”
- Teens who use beauty filters at least weekly are 2x as interested in cosmetic surgery than those who use filters less frequently.
Fighting against this is core to who we are at cocokind. Today, we’re launching a digital pledge called #BoldEnough that we hope you’ll take with us. By taking this pledge, you’ll help us actively decrease the use of unrealistic, harmful beauty filters that make all of us feel like we’re not enough.
In addition, for the entire month of May, no matter where you purchase our best selling Ceramide Barrier Serum, we’ll be donating all profits, up to $20,000, to HalfTheStory. HalfTheStory was one of the first companies to ever receive a Cocokind Impact Foundation grant, and they will use these funds to support SocialMediaU, which educates young people on the connections between emotional health and digital habits to transform their relationship with technology.
Thank you for helping us lead this change.
-P
