A depressing report has uncovered a shocking amount of women consider themselves ugly.
The job of a beauty therapist is unique to any other in that it holds the power to transform a woman’s (or a man’s) confidence and outlook on life, simply by bringing out beautiful qualities that are already there.
And while you’ll be hard pressed finding a beauty therapist who’d consider any of their clients anything but beautiful, a disheartening new study shows that the vast majority of clients don’t feel the same way about themselves.
According to The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, a whopping 10,000 women Google the question, ‘Am I ugly?’ every month.
10,000 women Google the question, ‘Am I ugly?’ every month.
The global survey, which collected quantitative data from 3,200 women, aged 18-64, found that, disconcertingly, only two per cent of all women across the globe would actually consider themselves ‘beautiful’.
When asked to rate their level of beauty, 72 per cent of women said they were ‘average’, while 13 per cent went as far as to define themselves as ‘much less’ beautiful than others.
only two per cent of all women across the globe would actually consider themselves ‘beautiful’.
Interestingly, in a country by country analysis, the study found that women in Japan were most likely to consider themselves average or below average, while Brazilian women were the most likely to consider themselves beautiful.
When asked about their body weight, almost half of all women worldwide said their number on the scales was ‘too high’.
Perhaps most poignantly, the study revealed that a woman’s feelings about her appearance have a direct and profound impact on her mood and self esteem, with 48 per cent of all women surveyed saying they ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement, ‘When I feel less beautiful, I feel worse about myself in general.’
While many formulas – most notably, ‘the golden ratio’ – have been created throughout history to try and identify what true beauty is, it is still largely considered a perceptive experience, meaning that while you may see an unattractive face in the mirror, your spouse, friends, family, or even strangers, may not.
Have your say: Do these results surprise you? How do you define beauty?