Twenty years ago, Christine Aguilera was top of the pops with “Beautiful,” an enchanting and affirming ballad that became an instant anthem of self-acceptance. Covers came and went (a favorite of mine was Clem Snide’s garage-y that toed the line between homage and parody), but many forget, or perhaps never knew, that the song was written by Linda Perry, the former lead singer of San Francisco’s 4 Non Blondes. I mean, who could forget Perry’s dizzying cry, “What’s going on?!” from their breakout single in 1992? Perry summed up both the existential hurly-burly of the ‘90s and Gen X anxiety (which persists to this day), then answered it a decade later with “Beautiful.”
But what does all this Wikipedia spelunking have to do with Beauty, Health & Wellness, you ask? Everything. The three concepts are often intertwined–sure, you can have one and not the others–but pursuing the trifecta produces results greater than the sum of their parts. Of course, this was not the dominant paradigm for those of us who came of age in the ‘80s and ‘90s when “heroin chic” was all the rage. If you’re reading this, it’s likely that, like me, you missed the option to “live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse,” so why not go for the CBD-infused gua sha facial? And, also, like me, if you have no idea what “CBD-infused gua sha facial” means, feel free to scream from the top of your lungs, “What’s going on?”
The answer is: You. Because… “You are beautiful no matter what they say / Words can’t bring you down.” Not even these words. As you browse this section, please keep this in mind: You are beautiful in every single way. With or without CBD-infused gua sha facial (though I hear it’s great).
By the way, I heartily recommend searching YouTube for Perry’s performance of “Beautiful” at the 2016 L.A. Impact Awards. It’s utterly gutting. And true. — DH
