Jada Sezer: ‘Please, never believe your face is only worthy with a filter on it’

Jada Sezer, model and mental health advocate 

“Every day, we are flooded with images of idealised beauty standards, of airbrushed bodies and flawless skin.

Everything we consume visually affects us. I have to stop and check myself, to remember I have the power to not accept. I love Instagram, but I’m searching for something real, not the heightened versions of aspirational dreams and best sound bites of life. Stretch marks, scars, wrinkles, blemishes – it’s all a part of us, our story and our skin. I’m trying to care less about things that do not matter.

I wish I had had the ability to shake off that pressure when I was younger.

You are much greater than a bland, beauty- blended version that morphs you into the masses. Please, never believe your face is only worthy with a filter on it.

The real value is in who you are, not who you aren’t. “Beauty lies between the lines and the colours of your skin,” my sister once told me. “You were never meant to be flat or flawless.” Don’t kill yourself chasing beauty. If it costs you your happiness, it’s too expensive.”

Lee Malone is hoping to publish his Perceptions of Beauty book of portraits next year with money raised going towards various women’s mental health and domestic abuse charities. @lee_malone_photography

This article originally appeared in the November issue of IMAGE Magazine.

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