2020-04-01 Good Housekeeping

To makeup or

not to makeup?

Author and activist Glennon Doyle is brutally honest

about how difficult defying societal expectations is—

and yet finds it totally and thrillingly freeing!

SHELF HELP

For years, the writer of Love Warrior and

Untamed felt pressure to be perfectly

made up. Then she experimented with

a naked face. Ultimately, she’s found

a happy medium—and the confidence

to ignore the pushy little voice in her

head whenever it pops up to say, “Well,

women should....”

Ages 26 to 38:

Never leave

home without it

“When I was younger, I thought I had

to make myself into this version of a

woman that was held up as desirable.

When I got sober from bulimia and

alcoholism at 26, I still spent so much

of my time and energy matching

myself to this specific cultural ideal of

beauty. I swear, I used to think putting

on makeup was like a kindness to

the world. It was my responsibility.

I couldn’t go out into the world just

looking how I looked. That would be

unacceptable. Which is ridiculous.

No man walks around the earth

thinking, I can’t go out into the world

with my face. I spent almost 20 years

learning to turn myself into someone

else’s version of beauty, and that started

to feel like a cage to me.”

Ages 39 to 40:

The (almost)

no-makeup years

“Remember when Alicia Keys decided

to stop wearing makeup? I was like,

That’s it! So even though I’d rarely left

the house without makeup, I forced

myself to go onstage for a year without

anything except my tinted moisturizer,

Glennon Doyle,

lightly made up

Discover bk club

68 GH APRIL 2020

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