#FacialExpression - The Selfies For Change Project

Your face - it conveys your emotions visibly, with laughter, smiles and tears. It is the first thing that someone will pay attention to when meeting you for the first time. We slather our faces in products of every kind in an attempt to feel better about how our face looks.

Some people (well, ok, most people) aren't 100% happy with how their faces look. We may think our eyes are too small, our noses too big, our foreheads too wide, our lips too thin, our teeth too crooked - the list goes on. We apply copious amounts of a variety of products across our faces in an attempt to feel better about how we look. Magazines and television advertisements weave a thick web of lies in order to sell their products - the lies being that we must look a certain way in order to be considered "beautiful". The media use their clever tools of heavy makeup and Photoshop to convince us that the people in the magazines always look like that. 

Stop what you're doing right now. Stop reading this. Stand up. Look in the mirror.

What do you see?

Pay attention to your face. Look at what is on it. Are there spots? Scars? Blemishes? Uneven skin tone? Bags under your eyes? Moles? Birthmarks? Bruises?

Look at the things on your face that you dislike - but this time, don't think about how much you dislike them. You may think to yourself, "Why do I have to have this big scar on my cheek? Why must my nose be so wonky? Why must I have so many spots?" Don't.

These imperfections on your body are what make you, you. You were made to be imperfectly perfect. Accept that you will never be like the people in the magazines - and that's because even the people in the magazines don't look like that. Remember that there are days when Beyoncé wakes up with a zit or two on her face. Remember that there are days when Jennifer Lawrence gets dark circles around her eyes. Remember that there are days when Eva Longoria needs to shave her legs. Because although they seem flawless, they have imperfections too - just like us. Because although we do not all look the same, we all have one thing in common - we are all human beings.

Notice the things you like. Observe how your eyes sparkle when you think about the things you love. Look at how your hair sits neatly on your shoulders. See how dimples appear on your cheeks when you smile. This is beauty.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about how our faces receive so much subconscious judgement from other people and from ourselves. A lot of people will care more about how a person looks, rather than who the person is and what they have to say. And so I pondered to myself -

"Why can't we use our faces and bodies as canvases to express ourselves and to say something important?"

Well, here I am now - writing this article about a personal project I have created myself. I have named this project "#FacialExpression - The Selfies For Change Project". To express ourselves and the important issues that matter to us through using our faces as our art canvases. (Hey, who doesn't like a good selfie, right?)

The topics I wanted to incorporate with my project are feminism, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamaphobia, equality, body positivity, beauty standards, sexuality (such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual etc.), domestic violence and any other social injustice/issue that people can think of.

I posted about my project on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using my own #FacialExpression selfie as an example, asking my friends and followers to use their imagination and to create their own to send in to me to put on my blog.

"You will never own me. I will never fear you."
My own #FacialExpression selfie speaks powerful words
addressing the issue of domestic violence.

After I created my own photos with an important message written on my skin, I decided to post it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I was praised a lot for projecting an important message, and I encouraged my friends and followers to do the same.

Below is a gallery of all the photos I received from my friends in real life, and from my followers on Twitter and Instagram.

Sally-Marie, 18 - "Love is love" -
addressing homophobia and
marriage equality

Sarah, 18 - "Feminism is not a dirty word" -
highlighting feminism, it's importance
and that it should not be ridiculed

Bébhionn, 17 - "Sexism is a social disease" -
regarding sexism in every form

Caitlin, 17 - "Don't be a silent victim" -
addressing domestic violence and
abusive relationships and
encouraging victims to
speak out

Chelsea, 17 - "Pan pride" - acknowledging,
supporting and being proud of pansexuality

Chelsea, 17 - "Self respect ≠ chastity" -
regarding women making the choice
to have sex and the negativity
of slut-shaming, as well as
self-respect having no correlation
with the amount of sex a person has

Katherine, 17 - "Not ur babe" -
recognising women being cat-called in
public by men

Niamh, 17 - "Thunder thighs are beautiful" -
conveying body positivity and loving oneself

Niall, 17 - "Equality hurts no-one!" -
promoting equality regardless of sex,
gender, sexual preference, race, religion,
age and ability

Hayleigh, 18 - "Not your luv" - recognising women being cat-called in
public by men

Eilish, 17 - "Not your slave" -
highlighting rape and domestic
violence

Leah, 19 - "Beautiful with makeup and without" -
obligation to wear makeup and that everyone 

addressing beauty standards, women's
is beautiful both with and without makeup

Leah, 19 - "My piercings don't make me
a 'thug', 'chav' or a 'dyke'!" -
spreading the message that how people
look do not define their character

The support I received from my fellow friends and followers throughout the creation of this project was fantastic. Everyone who took part in it were so enthusiastic and willing to get their own messages out. I was worried that I wasn't going to get enough photos for my blog because I didn't think many people would want to take part. But after I got 4 or 5 photos from a few of my friends, I made a collage of the photos on an app on my phone, and posted the collage to Facebook and Twitter. I captioned the photo with the details regarding entries for my project, and once my friends and followers had seen other people doing it, the amount of entries I received after that absolutely blew me away. It was like rolling a tiny snowball down a steep hill, and watching it get bigger and bigger. I was overwhelmed by how enthusiastic people were about taking part in the #FacialExpression - Selfies For Change project and all the lovely comments I was receiving about it from numerous different people, even from people who didn't make any entries.

I really feel like I have acheived something with this project. Yes, it may realistically be only a small amount of people who took part, but for a small-town girl with a lot of opinions to voice, I was rather impressed with how well it turned out to be in the end.

I'd like to thank all of my friends and followers who took the time and effort to be a part of this little movement - Sarah, Leah, Niall, Bébhionn, Katherine, Caitlin, Hayleigh, Niamh, Chelsea, Eilish and Sally-Marie. I appreciate all of your work from the bottom of my heart and I can't thank you all enough for your support.

Thanks for reading this post, don't forget to check out my previous blog entries and follow me for future posts! 💕