For the past two days my Facebook feed has been full of photos of women wearing no make-up. Teenagers, grandmas, tired young mothers, sophisticated professionals - all posting selfies of their unadorned faces. All looking beautiful.
It appears no one is sure quite how this phenomenon began, but somehow women are challenging their friends to post a make-up free photo and make a donation to a cancer charity. A good thing - yes? Of course, when any craze sweeps through social media, there is the backlash: "I don't get it. Are they saying going make-up free is like having cancer?"
Er... no! Going make-up free is not like having cancer. Neither is holding a cake sale, abseiling down a twenty-storey building, running 5k, shaving off your hair or even walking from John O'Groats to Lands End - but these are all things people do to raise money, raise awareness and show solidarity with their friends and family who live with cancer. This social media craze has generated an unexpected windfall for charities researching treatment for cancer - research which has transformed the survival and life expectancy rates for people who have cancer over the past few decades. Celebrate it!
But as a friend of mine says, there can be multiple good reasons for doing something, and there is another reason I support no make-up selfies. I know many of my friends who have posted a photo would rather abseil down a twenty-storey building than walk out of the house without their slap on. They have been fed the lie that they are only as valuable as they are youthful and beautiful. Seeing dozens of bare-faced women on social media being affirmed and cheered on by those who love them challenges that lie, and to me it is something life-giving.
In a month when I have lost two friends and colleagues to cancer and another variant of this disease threatens the life of a third, I am all for doing things that promote life and love. So I have posted a no-make-up selfie, and I have texted BEAT to 70007 to make a £3 donation to Cancer Research. Why not consider doing either or both too?
