We’ve probably all seen those Tik-Tok transformation videos, stalked other people’s

instagram profiles to compare before and afters, and enjoyed Mia Thermopalis’s makeover in The Princess Diaries. But how does it happen? At least for most of us, we don’t have a Paolo so how do we get the same result?

Many people think that the art of glowing up always has something to do with a person’s looks. Now, I can’t lie and say that a glow up has nothing to do with a person’s looks (‘cause that would flat out be a lie), but what I can say is that it’s not the main element. 

If anyone’s watched the movie, you will know that Mia had the biggest glow up of all time. From a 15 year old girl with frizzy hair, glasses, and a knack for messing things up, she manages to become a princess and lead herself with pride and confidence, while having great hair. But none of this happened during that iconic 3 minute make-up montage (except for the good hair)- it took time, heck, the w

hole movie, for her to discover herself and embrace who she really was before either her or us as the audience considered her to be a princess. 

It starts with the mind. Get ready to loathe your comfort zone, for your mind to be so sick of your current situation to the point where change is the only answer. Maybe you already do. Nights spent crying alone in your bed or that feeling of just “getting by” are all signs that you are ready for a glow up. At this point, you just need to act on it. It sounds easier than it is, trust me. For years I wanted nothing more than to be confident and be able to face a crowd, but the fear held me back. It wasn’t until I was in high school did I act on this fear, ,but once I did there was no stopping. 

Which brings me to step 2: you need to change something in your day to day routine. This change shouldn’t be too big – something you can stomach – while dealing with the rest of the hustle and bustle that is life. But that being said, it should be an intentional change, something that you want to get out of life. It could be something as simple as putting some toner on your face at night right before you go to sleep, to improve your skin.. I’m not saying that you need to be a skincare girly right off the bat and spend $1000 at Sephora on weird concoctions, but take it slow, identify a goal and put one foot forward towards it.  

But the thing that makes step 2 truly amazing is repetition. You have to keep up with that routine in order for that change to be instilled in your life. That same change that you wanted.. If I didn’t put in the work to stick to my nightly skincare routine and take care of my skin, then I would still have the same acne ridden face I had back when I started. But because I stayed consistent, you can see the change. And I didn’t just do that with my skin. I started taking care of my hair, started putting myself in situations where I would be forced to speak to people, and started off small – I pushed myself to change into the person I wanted to be, in each and every aspect of my life.

And sometimes, it’s all a matter of belief. If you can look in that mirror and say to yourself that you deserve to be loved, deserved to be heard, and deserved to be taken care of, even if you don’t believe it in that moment, the constant affirming of those beliefs verbally will make you believe in yourself more internally. 

And although the media and Disney makes us believe that simply taking off our glasses and purchasing a straightener can solve our problems, they truly don’t. By thinking of a glow-up as such, we have corrupted what it truly means and instead hurt the self esteem of kids everywhere by making them think that the only thing that matters is their looks. Although we may be taught by the media that all we need in life is a pretty face, the truth is that all we really need to do is believe in ourselves.

The moment you start believing in yourself, loving yourself, allowing yourself to fail, and giving yourself the permission to do the things you want to do, is when you start glowing up. That’s when the external changes follow, that’s where it starts. It doesn’t matter how you look, whether you are a goblin or a leprechaun, you too can glow up, because it is truly the inside that counts.