A rich, healthy, and happy life comes when you express your true self.

Written by Nancy Mitchell, Life Stories, are short inspirational stories that are a quick read to brighten your day. You’ll find the complete list of stories on the Products Page.

True Beauty 

Every girl wants to be beautiful, so they are accepted by others and desired by boys. No girl wants to be the "ugly duckling." Then, no one looks at you, or worse doesn't speak to you. To be ignored is to be invisible. That's the kiss of shame for girls who are judged inferior, based on the beauty of others.

Pauline is well aware of how people judge, based on appearances. 

She knows she isn't beautiful. She knows she isn't remotely attractive compared to the other girls in her class. Pauline has come to this conclusion because when boys look at the girls in her class, it's as if she doesn't exist. Rather than look at her, they glance beyond her, focusing instead on the prettiest or most popular girls. 

Of course, this treatment is unsettling to Pauline, who tries everything to improve her appearance. She changes her hair style, curls it, cuts it, even dyes it. Yet, none of that, including wearing make up changes the impression the boys or her classmates have of her, except to laugh at her attempt to look beautiful. It's obvious by their reaction, she's "a loser." Classmates either ignore her or poke fun at her. Their impression has her believing she is one big joke. 

Frustrated, Pauline contemplates suicide. What's the point of being alive when I'm already dead. Determined to "end it all," she decides she wants to do it in style. It has to be an event no one forgets. To get ideas on how to "end it well," she goes to the library. There must be such a book!

Once in the library, she peruses the shelves to find books on suicide. Instead of how to end it, these books are about how to prevent it. She's disappointed. How can I end it, if there are no books on how to do this "in style?" The thought of using a gun or a knife are way too gruesome. There must be a drug of some kind. Then, she thinks of the side effects. I don't want to take anything that will make me sick or feel pain. It has to be something that is quick. What about arsenic? I wonder if that's quick? Or painful? How would anybody know? Once they're dead, they can't tell you! Oh my, this is more difficult than I thought. Pauline decides to sit at a nearby table to ponder this further. 

At the end of the table, Pauline sees another girl reading, using her fingers. Pauline watches the girl's lips move silently, while her fingers cross the page. She's blind! Pauline assesses, as the girl silently reads in braille. 

Pauline studies the girl for several minutes. She's a very pretty girl, who will never know her beauty because she is blind. Here I with the gift of sight and I'm thinking about ending it all! How shallow of me! I'm sure this girl would choose sight over beauty any day. Pauline decides she will use her sight to create beauty. She asks the girl, if she can draw her picture. The girl is delighted that someone would choose her for a portrait. 

Pauline makes a rough sketch and asks if the girl will return the next day so she can continue to work on her portrait. The girl tells her she's in the library every day at this time. So for several days, Pauline works on this portrait. By the end of the week, the portrait is complete. Pauline is very pleased, in fact surprised. She is impressed with how well the portrait looks and that she created it. (Through the beauty of her heart, she creates a beautiful portrait.) The library wants to display it, which has both girls beaming. One, blind with a beautiful face and the other with a beautiful heart.

"You are truly gifted." The librarian tells Pauline as the blind girl listens and smiles, happy to have a portrait of her on display. This makes Pauline happy too, knowing she has a talent, she hadn't taken too seriously. 

Over the course of the next few weeks, Pauline's attitude toward the kids at school changes. She disregards their behavior, thinking instead that she is a beautiful person on the inside because of the art that she is creating everyday after school. 

One day, she is called into the Principal's office. Everyone thinks Pauline is in trouble, making Pauline think the same. Instead of a reprimand, the Principal is happy to see her. His face smiling at her! 

"Pauline, I had no idea you are so talented!" He beams.

Pauline stares at him.

"I saw your picture at the library, and was so impressed. Naturally, I'm excited that it was a student from my school!" He tells her. 

Pauline relaxes, happy that he likes her artwork.

"Pauline, do you have other artwork that can be displayed in the school halls? I promise, they'll be framed and put under glass to protect them."

Pauline is delighted to share her artwork, telling the Principal she'll bring what she has. The next day, Pauline's Art is hung near the school office, so teachers, parents, and visitors can see her artwork. It's an impressive display that has many of the staff wanting to know more about Pauline and how she gets inspired to do such beautiful work. The Principal recommends that an article about Pauline and her artwork is published in the school newspaper.

Pauline openly shares that a blind girl helped her see her own gift. Drawing beautiful pictures is her way of sharing the beauty in her own heart. The newspaper article becomes "the buzz," as everyone wants to become friends with Pauline. She's become a school celebrity! Pauline is taken aback, never thinking anything like this would come true for her! With gladness in her heart, she is grateful she didn't "end it all," but met the blind girl instead. 

Pauline's popularity soars when the local television station does a broadcast about her. Her classmates now idolize her, making her one of the most popular girls in the school. The boys not only look her way, but several have left notes on her locker, asking her to the upcoming high school dance! Pauline is flabbergasted by all  this attention! All these invitations! She's beside herself, pondering which boy to accept when the captain of the football team approaches her. He's a tall, handsome boy, who is the dream of every girl in the school. Her eyes meet his, as he boldly asks to take her to the dance. Her mouth drops.  

"You're asking me?" She blurts.

He nods, his eyes gleaming.

"Why? You can go with the prettiest girl in the school!"

"But you are the prettiest girl" He declares.

She glares at him, as if catching him in a lie.

"Maybe not by outward appearances." He confesses. "However, you have what a lot of girls with pretty faces don't have."

"What's that?"

"True beauty. You have---  heart. I'll take a girl with a beautiful heart any day over a shallow girl with a pretty face."

She looks at him and smiles. Not only is he a good looking boy, he's also smart!

"My beautiful heart says yes!'" she tells him enthusiastically.

He squeezes her hand. 

"Ok. It's a date!" He tells her smiling

When Pauline looks back on this time in her life, she realizes she grew to understand true beauty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that eye is within every human being. True beauty is when you express the beauty within yourself.