July 10th, 2025

What is the cost of beauty? What is it’s worth?

My interest in appearance began when I realized I did not look like how I wished to look. ”Isn’t that a heavy mindset for a young person? Where is this conversation going?” You might think warily. To that, I ask humbly for you to regard my words as what they are. Words.

Now, back to the topic at hand. My appearance. I scrutinized myself in the mirror with a keen, sharp, and strange focus on my face and body. “I think I look off.” I remember thinking. “My eyes are so bright, my features are beautiful, but my skin is so distracting…have I always been this frame?”

I suppose here is where you sigh in relief! My problem was in the texture and blemishes on my face, but not my face itself. The inflamed bloating of my stomach and the awkwardness of my features all combined, but not the features themselves. Though there were times throughout my upbringing I experienced a distorted and hazy sense of doubt in my physical appearance (feature wise), I can say with confidence and much gratitude that I have found comfort in my appearance. This was achieved through means of my own and efforts of health, healing, and happiness.

I do digress from the main topic at hand. Only to hopefully reveal the question this writing will explore. “What is the cost of beauty?. A heavily debated topic within an era of forever growing and diversified forms of beauty. But, I suppose to answer this we must first ask its inverse. What is the worth of beauty?

This topic carries with it more intricacies than my first story, “Tales of Adam and Eve?”. I urge my readers to remember a topic I discussed within that story. Beauty will forever be, multiple, hypocritical, contradictory, and paradoxical. This is because humans—the entity in which this concept exists within—are multiple, hypocritical, contradictory, and paradoxical. This is unless we are educated to the point of being otherwise (To eat again the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.) 

To define beauty 

My very own, mystic-of-a-19-year-old definition. Beauty is a currency that everyone is born with, entitled to, and subjected by. Since I have defined beauty as a form of currency, this writer must consider factors that had never been considered before. Spending, saving, gifting, or investing beauty. Suddenly, through this lens, it becomes clear all the possibilities of which beauty can be “spent” on. It is time to expand on each possibility.

Is Beauty spent beauty earned? 

The best way I can describe “spending” beauty is as gaining ownership of objects, mindsets, proximity, and favors. Beauty, whether consciously or subconsciously used as a currency, evokes a feeling within the viewer, as my fellow collegiate learners and high school graduates will know, pathos is the evocation of feelings. Beauty uses pathos to convince an argument or be better believed. This is the fundamental way of how beauty is spent, with or without the intention or discernment of its user.

But why is beauty spent?  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” or “Beauty is in the eye of its beholder.” These sayings translate to the same foundational message: worth and currency is in the eye of the person who sees it. This worth is deemed, accepted (or rejected), then exchanged for another currency of an equal, lesser, or greater worth. But again, this is subjective to the beholder and its…participant? Beauty is traded for money, beauty is traded for lifestyle, or, beauty is traded for proximity. Beauty can be traded for anything to the right and willing individual.

If it is still difficult to understand, I recognize the deeper complexity in my writing and hope to provide a blanket example that may help. One person who is less bothered by money (trash to them/treasure to another) will happily exchange all of their money to a kind, gentle, beautiful person(trash to them/treasure to another) Should the they deem it acceptable. The terms “trash” and “treasure” are used ignoring their denotative meanings, rather, to observe their connotative value.

Put beauty in a HYSA

Although at first, I thought it impossible to save beauty. I recently unveiled a way to which I will share with you now. But just so that I am clear, this will be referring to both surface level beauty (appearance, aesthetic, etc.) and inner beauty (personality, temperament, etc.) in two separate ways.

Saving physical beauty: to put it simply, physical beauty can only be saved by the environment around a person. Earlier, I defined beauty as a currency which is to be spent on things the person deems worthy or treasures. But, what if a person of physical beauty is not around anything they deem worthy or of treasure? Why, then they will surely not spend their beauty! It is like this that physical beauty, as a currency, can be saved and not spent. To save physical beauty, the person must be around things which they do not deem worth spending.

 Saving inner beauty: what about morally good values which society as a collective deems beautiful? Such as kindness, compassion, and gratitude? How can these forms of beauty be saved and not spent? Take for example how a person acts with money as a currency, specifically when they hope to save it by any means necessary. In order to have a liberal amount of money, they are stingy with where it is spent. And so, when it comes to inner beauty, these traits and personalities are saved by simply choosing their inverse. Mean to save kindness, judgment to save compassion, and dismissing to save gratitude. Although the word “saving” is used and holds a degree of positive connotation, please note that attempting to save inner beauty in this form of society is…impractical.

By saving inner beauty, you are spending (what this mystic-of-a-19-year-old refers to as) “karma-credit” instead. Your choice to be mean, judgemental, and dismissive will come back to you in the form of mean, judgement, and dismissing via the universe. The contradictions of life do not stop at Adam and Eve, but in everything we do! 

Gift of Beauty?

Parents gift their form of beauty to their children. The fusion of DNA, complex genetic structures, and all the other things I couldn’t get a hold of in science class. Yes. That is the gift of beauty to a child from a parent. To creation from creator.

But wait. Cannot beauty be gifted to a person as they are already existing? I spoke earlier about how I came to terms with my own features, so, how did I gift myself with beauty? I shall tell you that the answer was revealed within the start of this writing. Did you find it?

Beauty is based within its worth to specific group of people. In other words, go where you are beautiful, (re)learn that you are beautiful, feel that you are beautiful. Is this—the art of removing ourselves from situations and inserting ourselves into new ones—not a gift of beauty? An undervalued one in the opinion of this author. But I digress. You gift yourself beauty by clearing the mud from your eyes and seeing yourself for what your parents gifted you. You gift yourself beauty through acceptance or personal development.

Investing in our beauty?

While this author hopes this writing did not prompt readers to view themselves in a fuzzy light, I must now reveal one of the last factors that must be considered with regards to beauty. How can we invest in our beauty?

(Please note. I am not a doctor nor have I practiced any form of cosmetic surgery or anything in likely form. I am only a mystical 19-year-old. And so, I avert overly sensitive areas of concern. I will not talk about altering your appearance via surgery or any form of medical re-inventment. Let me be.)

In order to best understand, I will swiftly switch over to discuss the currency of money once again. How do we invest in getting money? “Time” some may say. “Jobs” others might coin in. But what about people without a job who have money? People who have spent little time but have money in abundance? Why—the answer is streams of income! Streams of income(money) differ from what we refer to as a job to get money or time to get money. Stream of income means exactly that. The different streams that flow into the ocean. The different ways (passive, active, formal, and more) we can get money. For more clarity, time is a factor of a job, which is a stream of income(money). 

Okay, let’s switch back. What about in the case of beauty? How do we invest in getting beautiful? Why, by all the “streams of income” I have just given you! 

Spending Beauty: The act of using the cost of your beauty to attract what you treasure! You get beauty by spending it!

Saving Beauty: There are people who view your beauty as, well, beauty. Find them. Save your beauty for people who you align yourself to be worth.

Gifting Beauty: You were gifted beauty by your parents, and everyone has a degree of beauty which is theirs to claim, give away, change, or invest. Gift yourself with beauty in the form of acceptance and gratitude of your natural beauty in order to get more beautiful.

Investing Beauty: invest beauty, physical and inner into a “diversified portfolio” of physical and inner beauty that will appreciate over time. Your lifestyle (friends, family, house, car, appearance) and your lifeful (morals, values, identity, ideals) play a key role in affecting how you see yourself, value yourself, and love yourself.

Two Factors not to be forgotten nor manipulated.

I (perhaps purposefully) have left out two additional factors of beauty which I now expand to you all. Beauty can be spent, saved, gifted, or invested. Beauty can also be recognized and destroyed.

Beauty as a Blessing or Taboo? 

Blessing: Beauty is recognized in different ways because it is a reflection of the viewed to the viewer. If the person of beauty is aware and conscious of their beauty, it will be a blessing. If person 2 comes and sees this person whose beauty is—to themselves—beautiful, then they will recognize it as such. In this case, beauty is acknowledged, appreciated, reflected, and accepted. But what about in another case?

Taboo: Beauty that is suppressed or ignored by a person will seem like that to an onlooker. Suppressed or ignored beauty will be susceptible to being traded for less than what it is worth, or, abused by people who will extract the value of beauty in exchange for what they desire (money, approval, favors, proximity.)

Why is it that caring for beauty is frowned upon? I have already told you the secret! Beauty is both a subconscious and conscious form of currency. This means that beauty is not bound to the constraints of time. The tale of sleeping beauty reveals that beauty can never sleep, no? Beauty can be kind, and giving, and inspiring, and growing. If beauty is any of these, then how can we possibly stop it? We humans frown upon beauty because, for once, It is not us who can start and stop it. We are not beauty‘s creator. We are only its guardians and its spectators. This is why we despise it so.

Beauty to be destroyed?

Beauty can never sleep, and so if beauty never sleeps, it will never stop being exchanged for objects, mindsets, languages, proximity, and favors. That is, unless you destroy it at the root of its existence. The entity or object which carries beauty. To kill it? I suppose that might be the only way. right?

This mystic of a 19-year-old author wonders what you think the other way is? I cannot give you all the answers, so humor me this request.

(Hint hint: money that can be traded, spent, gifted, or destroyed is only possible with the money that you do not claim as your own.)

To Conclude: Beauty’s Worth and Cost

I have made this writing longer than necessary to discuss a topic that interests me greatly. As a writer, as a woman, and as a mystic. Beauty can be worth as much to the reader as it is to the writer. Or, it can be worth nothing to you, but mean everything to I. I must now return to the original question: What is the cost of beauty? 

I first tell you the answer to its inverse. What is the worth of beauty? The worth of beauty is the price of nothing. Should you, I, and everyone be such a complex paradox. The only worth beauty can have (that will possibly satisfy such complexity) is if it is worth the price of nothing. And so, it is revealed time and time again that we gain nothing through our endless pursuit of it. As stated earlier, beauty is not in the hands of us humans. Yet, time and time again, humans and our relentless obsession will fixate over beauty to a fault’s end. And so, due to our varying perspective, experiences, and lenses, nothing will ever be the price that is equal to the worth of beauty. Nothing.

Now, I must reveal the answer to my earlier riddle (with a heart of vain and fear for the complexity it will generate!). Beauty can be destroyed only once you claim it as your own. Once the price of beauty suddenly equals the worth of you (beauty) the solution is shifted. When you are gone, beauty(you) will die.

And so, what is the cost of beauty? This author will tell you with a few nods of contempt in the ride she has taken you on! The cost of beauty(you) is the price of everything. 

 I ask selfishly for you to regard my words as what they hope to reveal. The cost and worth of you.

Thank you for reading, love

– Ire A.