Whenever I see a body positivity/positive self image movement, I am all over it. I think it’s beautiful when we can lift each other up and feel beautiful in our skin, no matter what, and not constantly compare ourselves to the person standing next to us.
But that is not what the #DontJudgeMeChallenge is doing. I don’t know who started the challenge, but I would like to believe they started it with the intention of it celebrating the fact that we are all beautiful no matter what we do to make ourselves feel that way. If you want to wear makeup, curl your hair and wear contacts because you feel more confident that way, then you shouldn’t be judged for it. But, on the flip side, if you don’t want to wear makeup, you like your natural just-out-of-the-shower hair and you love wearing glasses, you shouldn’t be judged for that, either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xsHx7ZUDNY
But is that what I’m seeing in the majority of these challenge videos? No.

No, what I’m seeing is a bunch of people smearing lipstick on their lips, putting glasses on, drawing braces on their teeth, connecting their eyebrows to make a unibrow and putting dots of sharpie all over their face. Then, they put their hand to the camera, remove it and magically they look perfect.Their hair is styled; their makeup (for the girls) is nicely done, and they wink and lick their lips and flash a smile that says, “Yeah, I know I’m hot.” But you know what? Even though you did all of that and you think you look hot, to me, you are incredibly ugly.
Essentially, what you’re saying by making a video like that is that people who have braces, acne and glasses are ugly and that the ONLY way you can be attractive is if you have none of those “imperfections.” You’re making fun of people who can’t just remove the braces from their teeth, who can’t just wipe away the acne with a wet cloth and who can’t just remove their glasses and have perfect vision.
Beauty comes from within, first and foremost, and anyone who partakes in this challenge and makes fun of those who don’t look like them is an ugly person, inside and out. Being kind to others and being judgment-free are concepts this society just can’t seem to grasp, and it’s a shame since we’re all doing this thing called life together.
I’m proposing a new challenge: #DontJudgeOthersChallenge. Let’s see how long it takes someone to ruin that, too.