14 DAY TRIAL // One of the six winners of the latest social media campaign from MAC Cosmetics, aimed to find new faces for the MACnificent Me 2015 campaign, is Luzmaria Vargas, from Anaheim, California. She is so unlike what you’d expect a model in a cosmetics ad to look like that not even she expected to win.
MAC came up with the idea for the campaign in an attempt to redefine beauty and to show women of all shapes and sizes that they don’t have to look like supermodels to feel great. Luzmaria is happy to be among the few selected to deliver this empowering message.
Beauty is only skin deep
The selection was made based on a photo posted to social media and a 140-word mantra. Luzmaria says that MAC delivered on their promise to select winners in such a way as to prove that “what’s inside counts.”
Embedded below is her ad for the campaign, which shows her getting glammed up for a shoot and talking about the experience.
Obviously, Luzmaria is not a model, and she knows it. She also knows that she would have never made it as one even if she wanted to: she doesn’t consider herself particularly beautiful or fashionable. Add to that the fact that she’s constantly told she’s too fat, and you get a low self-esteem and a whole lot of pain.
Crying, the one-time model admits that “it hurts” when people say mean things about or to her, assuming that she has “no feelings” only because she’s overweight. At the same time, she finds comfort in knowing that the MAC campaign is validation of her worth as a person, because she wasn’t chosen for her good looks or slim figure.
“Just go for it”
The MAC campaign is also proof that dreams do come true, so she’s using her time in front of the camera to urge others, perhaps crippled by insecurity just like she used to be, to follow their own dreams.
“I know there are so many women out there that won't express themselves for the fact that they're overweight, but if I did it they can all do it,” she says. “I hope that this helps someone out there tucked in a room, who doesn't want to go out and show themselves. So just go for it.”
Here’s the video.
