Dove's Real Beauty Ad Campaign: You Are More Beautiful Than You Think

Do strangers see us more accurately than we see ourselves?

According to a new beauty campaign by Dove, the answer is yes, and the proof comes in the form of FBI forensic sketches.

On Monday, Dove posted a powerful three-minute YouTube video reminding us that we are more beautiful than we think. The response has been overwhelming.

Seven women of different ages, shapes, sizes, and backgrounds were asked to describe themselves to an FBI sketch artist, Gil Zamora, from behind a curtain; he couldn't see them. They were to give "just the facts" about their physical features, and he created sketches based solely on their descriptions.

What came out of their mouths wasn't just the facts, though; it was a version of the facts that most of us see when we look in the mirror: "I kind of have a fat, rounder face", "my mom told me I had a big jaw", "the older I've gotten, the more freckles I've gotten".

Then strangers, who met the participants in the waiting room, were brought in to describe these same women to the sketch artist. But this time, Zamora got "just the facts", the real facts, the way strangers see us: "she was thin, so you could see her cheekbones", "cute nose", "she had nice eyes; they lit up when she spoke".

The differences in the side-by-side sketches were pretty vast. Check it out.

The response was emotional. My response was emotional. I teared up thinking about how I would describe myself if given the same chance: "fat face", "big lips", "frizzy hair", "wide hips".

Is that all I see? Is that what I'm teaching my daughter?

Each one of us is unique and we all have a true physical beauty that is all our own. We also have an inner beauty that shines through us because of who we are. The world tells us that our beauty doesn't count. We need to remind the world that it does.

"Women are their own worst beauty critics," Dove says. "Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful... we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contract to what others see."

Finally! A beauty campaign that actually makes us feel beautiful. Thanks, Dove.