Opinion Editor
Ashley Davis
March 26 to March 30 is Confidence Week. During this week all students are encouraged to participate by not wearing makeup, not styling their hair, and not wearing anything fancy. The purpose of this week is to show the world that each individual is a confident person, even without makeup or cute clothes; the message is that these things don’t define the person.
Confidence Week is being promoted by Mrs. Rice and her health classes. Mrs. Rice was inspired first, when she found a movie called Missrepresentation. The trailer for this movie can be found on Youtube. Missrepresentation is a movie that explores the role of women in today’s society. It discusses the serious issues of how women are viewed as objects, rather than people. It also sends a message of how our society sets unrealistic goals for women to achieve, in order to appear ‘beautiful.’
This video sparked one of her students to suggest that Heritage hold a Confidence Week. Since Confidence Week has been proposed, many other teachers and schools are participating in their own way. Evergreen, Union and Battleground are participating. Mrs. Perez will be exploring the use of Photoshop in ads and the Dove advertisements with her marketing and advertising classes. Mr. Emmert will be taking portraits of people au natural, during Confidence Week, who are committed the cause between 7:30 and 1 in room 601. Mrs. Keller will be exploring what actually goes into makeup, and how we can find more natural products. Mrs. Rice says, “I love to see all of the other teachers participating in this as well, and incorporating these ideas into their classrooms.”
The purpose of this week is really to unite and embrace ourselves as individuals. Mrs. Rice says, “It’s really the elephant in the room. How do we expect kids to go far and go after their dreams if they aren’t confident enough?” Mrs. Rice also admits that it won’t be easy. “It will be really hard for everyone, even myself, but I have talked to girls who are excited to take off the mask and boys who are excited to see girls without so much makeup on.”
Mrs. Rice hopes that everyone, including guys, participate in Confidence Week because, “confidence is not just a girl’s problem.” The message is really to embrace who you are as an individual, rather than how everyone expects you to look.