One Woman Slams Unrealistic Beauty Evolution Videos With a History Lesson

It can be surprisingly easy to forget that the perfect woman doesn't exist. We've seen tons of girls take to YouTube and use makeup to morph into glamorized versions of themselves. It's lately become even more popular to transform into what ladies looked like from past periods in time. However, fashion blogger Karolina Zebrowska took to her channel to remind us that the beautiful images that we see on social media aren't accurate representations of the truth.

"I've seen a lot of videos on the internet recently showing us what women looked like in past decades," Karolina said. "But there are things they don't show us." She takes us through the 1900s and explains how most women were factory and domestic workers (not all that glamorous, eh?). Karolina also brings up the suffering during the Great Depression and how women weren't able to vote. Her powerful messages and eerie depictions serve as true reminders that we have endured a lot over the years — and how we are much more than a good blowout and carefully chosen filters.

But the growing popularity of Karolina's video has sparked a response from Christopher Chan, one of the brains behind the 100 Years of Beauty video series. "There's a troubling logic behind [Karolina's] video and the praise it has been receiving," he says. "The trouble's not in attempting to pay homage to the bravery, strength, or fortitude from women in history. It's in the assumption that any one representation of a woman can be more 'real' than another."

Christopher praises Karolina and anyone else who can create a thought-provoking video. But he also points out the problem with the way we look at history. "It's remembered through documents and oral histories and photographs, but somebody does the work of choosing which of these fragments make it into the narrative," he explains. "It's just as staged as the cover of Elle, and it leaves out more than it can include."

The equally powerful response to the video makes us think about what truly defines a "real" woman. Does one woman's past or present struggles make her more real or beautiful than someone else? Or are reality and beauty shaped by the unique stories and lives of all women?