Youth and beauty have always been traits labeled of large importance. Although these skin deep traits seem very enchanting at most times, they are actually what break most people down. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian’s “obsession with his own physical beauty” is a perfect example of not only how destructive these “traits” or “characteristics” can become, but of how destructive they can make someone.

In society, these traits are almost necessary in order to succeed in life or to be “normal”.  In reality, there is no true definition of what youth and beauty actually are because we, as humans, are too diverse in order to follow the certain “rules” or “guidelines” for accomplishing these specific traits.

Personally, I believe that youth and beauty are not physically real. If there is no exact way or manner of being perfectly youthful and beautiful, then I do not believe that it is of real existence. To most people, this would sound odd or wrong but I do not mean it as “no one can be youthful” or “no one can be beautiful”. By this, I mean that we all have different “definitions” of these two traits that make them perfectly available for everyone but we as whole do not have a specific definition or rule that makes us all perfectly youthful and beautiful in the same way. I do know that there is such a thing as youth and beauty but I have realized that most of the time, these traits are not “enchanting” or “lovely” in any way. The more I see myself and others’ lives orbit around the certain rules that society keeps creating to supposedly make people more socially complete, the more I see us becoming not only less beautiful but less youthful as well. We spend too much time focusing on these traits so we simply keep getting older without realizing it, and the more that we concentrate on the traits, the more that it makes our mind and souls become less beautiful because we end up believing all of the negativity that is thrown at us while we try to be more beautiful. We become mean and negative people to ourselves and to others because while we think of ourselves as not obtaining either of these traits, we still find ways to say that we are more youthful and beautiful than others.

At most times, I try to pay the least attention I can to being youthful and beautiful because I know that I do not want to turn into a victim, much like what had happened to Dorian Gray. Wanting these traits has definitely destructed me and I have seen many people affected as well. When you see the destruction unfold, your mind turns into a machine that only sends you negative messages and is never pleased with how hard you try to lose weight, clear your skin, or anything else that people find the need to do in order to “accomplish” these traits.

Many people become a victim of the destruction by wanting to lose weight and get the results fast. Nowadays, society has put out multiple ridiculous rules in order for people to be “attractive”. These “rules” are all physically and materialistically based: the thigh gap, the abs, the flawless skin, the “perfect” height, the “perfect” weight, the sharp jawline, the “type” of clothes, and many more. Most people, especially females, try to solve these problems by getting what they believe is “fit”. By fit, these people usually believe that it simply means to lose weight fast and many times, this leads to eating disorders and illnesses like anorexia, bulimia, depression, and many more. The society’s set-standards are what cause so many of these problems because they practically force people to not feel good about themselves.

I know that I have thought of and tried many ways to try to reach these standards before and all I can say is that when this happens, you feel miserable. Although I haven’t actually had an “excessive” eating disorder in the past I definitely had thought of restricting myself and I have tried it for short periods of time. If people knew what was happening outside of their own concerns for “fitting in”, then we would be able to solve these types of issues and possibly change the standards as well as save many lives. It is easier to prevent the problems from happening than trying to get rid of them when the destruction and victimization has already started.