Have you ever gotten hung up on beauty? Fretting over appearances? This story offers a different perspective on what “true beauty” really is. When you have this kind of beauty, amazing things can happen to you!

True Beauty

Every girl wants to be beautiful, to be accepted by others and desired by boys. No girl wants to be the “ugly duckling.” When no one looks at you — or worse, speaks to you — you feel invisible. That invisibility becomes a kiss of shame for girls who are judged inferior based on looks or their lack of physical beauty.

Pauline, a recent high school transfer student, is well aware of how harshly people judge based on appearances.

She’s convinced she isn’t beautiful because the other girls, in her class, get more attention. They are attractive, which makes Pauline feel awkward, telling herself, she is the ugly duckling. Their rejection feeds her head with a harsh self‑assessment, as a flurry of ugly words condemn her. It pains Pauline to be overlooked, especially by the boys, who treat her as if she’s invisible.

It’s as if I don’t exist.

No one likes to be rejected, and that’s why Pauline tries everything she can think of to improve her appearance. She changes her clothes. She changes her hairstyle. She curls it, cuts it, even dyes it. She experiments with makeup. Yet none of these efforts change anyone’s reaction. The girls laugh at her attempts, and the boys ignore her. They aren’t going to challenge the girls’ view.

Their reaction says one thing: “She’s a loser.”

Over time, Pauline begins to believe she is one big, hopeless joke.

Frustrated and feeling lower than dirt, Pauline contemplates suicide. What’s the point of being alive when I’m already dead? Determined to “end it all,” she decides to visit the library. There are books about everything at the library, she reasons, so there must be a book about this.

Once there, she scans the shelves for books on suicide. Instead, she only finds books on how to prevent suicide — not how to do it. Now she’s disappointed.

How can I end my life quickly and painlessly without a way to do that?

The thought of using a gun or a knife is too gruesome. There must be a drug that’s quick and painless. She doesn’t want anything with side effects or that might make her sick.

What about arsenic? I wonder if that’s quick and painless?

Her next thought is unsettlingly logical: How could you know? Dead people don’t resurrect to tell their experience. Once you’re dead, you’re dead.

She realizes that ending it all painlessly is more complicated than she thought. Exasperated, Pauline sits down at a nearby table to ponder this crisis further.

At the end of the table, Pauline notices another girl reading — using her fingers. She watches the girl’s lips move silently while her fingers travel quickly across the page.

She’s blind, Pauline realizes, watching the girl read in braille.

Pauline studies her for several minutes. The girl is very pretty, yet she will never see her own beauty. A wave of shame washes over Pauline. I bet she could care less if anyone thought her “ugly” —if she had her sight.

Watching this girl enjoy the book she’s reading, Pauline becomes absorbed. She’s amused watching the girl absorbed in this book, smiling broadly as the words land in her mind with understanding. Pauline keeps watching. Her own mind begins to visualize a picture of this girl on canvas.

All thoughts of suicide vanish as this new desire consumes her.

Suicide? What was I thinking?—-This girl must be painted! She may be blind, but —-she’s beautiful. She’ll make a beautiful painting.

Suddenly, a rush of air crosses her face, as if reminding her that life is more important than dying. She now has a purpose —to paint this beautiful blind girl. Pauline is determined to capture this moment on canvas because this blind girl did something amazing for her. This blind girl helped me get my life back.

When she asks if the girl would mind having her portrait drawn, the blind girl shakes with delight.

“You want to make a portrait of me?” the girl asks excitedly, looking beyond where Pauline is standing.

“Yes,” Pauline replies in earnest. “Yes, I want to paint you and capture the beauty I see before me.”

What happens next is how true beauty can appear in anyone’s life —

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