Original subtitles

Right.

Hi. How are you?

I'm scared.

Have you ever had any Botox or fillers?

Mm-mm. OK. All right.

You know, the most place where people start is they do just a little bit of Botox. Yeah.

I'm in the City of Angels chasing that age-old cliche -

eternal youth and beauty.

Do you want to do any Botox today?

Hmm, good question.

Why do I feel like I need to do this?

Well, we live in a world where beauty, especially for women,

can lead to success, fame, and money.

Yet today's beauty ideals

are almost impossible to reach naturally.

When I was a teenager and I saw these, like, billboards of myself,

which clearly were, like, photoshopped and whatever,

I think it probably messes with your head a little bit.

Cos if you look in the mirror and you're like, "Wait, I don't look like that at all."

Yes, you've got to be tall, slim, yet curvy.

Definitely no wrinkles.

Oh, and it really helps to be white.

I started getting bullied in school, in my community.

I want to know how we got here.

What forces shape our ideas of what's gorgeous?

Can't I have both?

Could I and the world of beauty, fashion and social media

be part of the problem?

People will literally destroy their lives over trying to be beautiful.

And how can we hit back and reclaim beauty for ourselves?

This is real modelling.

Ah!

Beauty is such a fun thing to be able to play with,

but the point is, is that everyone should be able to play with it.

Everyone should be able to feel beautiful.

Oh, my God, I hate this one.

I...I. no, I didn't,

I didn't feel beautiful when I was young, no.

I felt very weird.

So this is me and my family.

These are my sisters.

Look how pretty and happy and perfect they look

and just...just gorgeous.

And then what is that? What is that?

Oh, God, you've got a bug on your windscreen.

Like who is that? Why?

If that came out of you you'd be scared, right.

SHE LAUGHS LOUDLY

Look at that. What is that?

I mean, looking at these photos,

when I was younger I just definitely felt more like I was out of place

and, like, wasn't, didn't belong.

Just a lot of rejection when I started modelling

because I was too short, or my eyebrows were too big.

Eyebrows were not a thing back then.

They would always try and bleach them or stick them down

and they would just never stick down.

You know, as a model, of course, I mean, there were parts of me,

of course I felt beautiful sometimes or pretty,

but it was always through the eyes of other people.

I know that in this film I'll have to take a long hard look at myself.

I'm white.

I'm a size and shape that sells.

For a long time I've been a classic example

of those elitist beauty standards.

Now I want to explore how things are changing.

My journey starts in the world that made me famous

and I'm meeting someone who is challenging its very core.

This is Nyakim Gatwech,

aka Queen of Dark...

..a model who's had to fight tooth and nail

to break into the fashion industry.

Planet Sex marker selfie one.

Look so it's like... But how do you do that?

You look...

But that's what I do.

I love it, I love it.

I mean, I have so many questions,

but first off, tell me a bit about yourself.

I was born in a refugee camp in South Sudan.

Came to America when I was 15

and I always knew that I had a passion for fashion

but I didn't know how to go about it.

I started getting bullied in school, in my community.

Yeah, why? And you know, at the grocery store.

Cos, you know, just being different, you know,

just having this complexion, you know, people started calling me names.

I hated myself.

I didn't think I was beautiful.

I didn't think I'd fit in in this beauty standard,

the western world standard.

It's not me. It didn't look like me.

So... But that standard is bullshit. Yeah.

It literally is bullshit. It really is.

I know what she means.

As a young model, I saw very little diversity on the catwalk.

When I first started every single person down a runway

looked the same.

Looked the same. And it became like this army-like girl. Body type too.

Body type, everything. That body type.

I think it's changing. It's changing.

But not fast enough.

It's still not fair.

There's still not the same equal opportunities. Exactly.

As recently as 2016,

over 75% of the models at all four big fashion weeks -

London, Paris, New York and Milan -

were white.

Like, when did you first start meeting agents

and what would the... What was the look like?

I mean, what was that experience like? Well...

I'd go see these agencies, that's when there was like,

"Yeah, we already have a girl that looks like you."

Literally they told me the name of the girl.

Like, how was they saying there's already someone that looks like you?

Like, there are too many white people.

Hello, there's so many people that look the same.

Are you ready? Are you serious?

Like, that makes no sense. It doesn't make no sense.

That's when I was like, "You know what?

If you really want to do this, you have to create your own lane." Yes.

Nyakim decided to bypass the fashion industry

and their old-school ideas of beauty

and do it alone,

collaborating with photographers to raise her profile

through self-funded shoots.

I got lucky enough and went viral on Instagram, you know,

and I was able to take that opportunity and I've been running with it ever since.

She now has more than a million followers on Instagram

and has starred in campaigns for Savage X Fenty

as well as L'Oreal Paris.

Nyakim's now at the forefront of what seems to be

some real change in the fashion industry.

In Spring 2022,

48% of models appearing

in the four big fashion weeks were non-white.

I don't want another little black girl to go through the jou... what I went through.

No. I want them to just be accepted if they...

..if this is what they want to do.

Modelling gives you a platform where you could use modelling

to inspire other people to make a change.

I want to be somehow a little bit,

however tiny it is, some change in this world.

That's what I want. That's always... But I didn't think that. Yeah, that's what I want.

And I didn't think that I have that. But you've done it already, but that's still the beginning.

You're still just at the beginning of all of that. Thank you.

No, don't thank me, thank you.

Do you think you're beautiful now? No!

Exactly.

She is the epitome of a supermodel, of a superhuman,

of the type of person that is what a model should represent.

How someone that sweet who's gone through so much

has been treated like that

and ever thought the things that she did.

It's completely insane.

Nyakim's tough journey is a stark contrast to my own

and really brings home how easy I've had it.

Modelling became an option when, you know,

I didn't really have any others, which sounds so spoiled.

My sister was a model, right, and I, for me I was like, "But I'm..."

My sisters were both really tall

and they were, like, classically very beautiful looking.

I had an opportunity to work with the same agency,

probably nepotism in so many ways.

That's also just being like a very privileged white girl,

you know, that I was able to even do modelling.

I had dropped out of school.

Like, the fact that I've, that was my only available job was pretty lucky.

I can't run away from the fact that I fit

that narrow and exclusive idea of what's beautiful.

But where do these so-called beauty standards even come from?

Pepe, sit.

Well, what we find attractive is at a basic level

down to evolution

our ancestors searched for the healthiest partners

to make the healthiest babies.

In today's speedy dating world, it's the same.

When meeting for the first time,

we're naturally drawn to the physical signs of fitness

and fertility.

Oh, we're not meant to touch.

I'm so confused.

Am I meant to, like, kiss her hand or what am I meant to do? Start again.

I'm nervous.

In women, these include a young face

with big eyes and bow lips,

a tiny waist and child-bearing hips.

In men, height,

broad shoulders and a strong jaw.

But what we find hot is about more than just healthy genes.

It's also shaped by our environment.

What a list of bachelors.

Yeah, I know.

LAUGHTER

Ah, where am I going to find my perfect partner?

Oh, wait.

This hairy little butthole behind me.

Dr Carlota Batres studies faces.

She explores the relationship

between those we find attractive

and the culture we grew up in.

So I signed up to take one of her tests.

Eeh! Should I be scared?

I'm going to show you some faces today

and I'm going to ask you some questions

about how you feel about these faces.

I don't think I judge people very well, so let's see what happens.

Carlota takes computer-generated faces,

manipulates certain features, then asks people to rate them.

So, who do you find more attractive?

I would tend to usually go for the more masculine man.

You were right that we are manipulating masculinity here.

Traditionally, more masculine features include bushy eyebrows,

a wider nose, and a stronger chin.

Bigger eyebrows, yeah.

So, technically, I have a man-y face.

You have masculine eyebrows, yes.

You'd think most people like me would go for a more masculine face,

but the results were surprising.

So, 65% of the participants in our sample chose

the more feminine face as more attractive.

But these were participants in the US.

Carlota's study involved both male and female participants.

And the results differ depending on what country they were from.

If I would've run the study in my home country of El Salvador,

I would've found that the majority of participants find

the more masculine face attractive.

This is not because people in El Salvador have a "thang"

for bushy eyebrows.

Subconsciously, our brains are making snap judgments

about future partners.

So, there's this link between masculinity and health.

So if you're in a country with higher health risks,

then there's a stronger preference

for the more masculine, healthier face.

Right, so that explains why people in low-health-risk countries,

like the US, lean towards a more feminine face.

They don't have to select for health.

OK, let's do another one.

Which one do you find more attractive?

Oh, they're both very pretty.

SHE LAUGHS Can't I have both?

Someone who has a wider face and someone who has a smaller face.

I don't know, what are their personalities like?

That one.

Well, like me, around two thirds of US participants found the face

on the left more attractive.

But again, if we ran this study in my home country,

we find that this face is more attractive.

In developing economies, a fuller face implies better access to food,

and therefore makes for a healthier, more attractive mate.

I don't know, this really makes me annoyed, this game.

But in the US, it's the opposite.

What in the US leads to viewing malnourishment as

maybe more attractive? Modelling!

Yeah, well, so social media, Internet... Fashion industry.

Social media. Yeah, exactly.

So, the faces that you're exposed to lead to your preference of them.

Whoa, stop! RECORD SCRATCH

Let me get my head around this.

Carlota's discovered that what we find hot is shaped

by our surroundings -

and not just in terms of looking for a healthy mate.

One huge influence on what we find beautiful is familiarity -

the faces we see around us most often.

So, familiarity is a big influencer in what it is

that we find attractive.

So, the faces around us, the way that those faces look,

is what we end up finding attractive.

And the way that the faces around us look is influenced by culture.

And that has kind of big implications for social media

and the fashion industry.

Because those ads and billboards that are in our faces

don't just reflect, but also influence what we find beautiful.

OK, so here's where I think we are.

Beauty is a mix of ancient fertility signals

and specific cultural preferences.

These then spread through the media to become the template

we all aspire to.

No longer is beauty about basic bonk-ability.

Now it's also about elite status, power, and some big benefits.

And the stakes are high for the winner judged the most beautiful.

Fame, riches, and possible motion picture fame are the prizes.

Welcome to the concept of beauty bias - aka, pretty privilege.

Women on trial are 35% less likely to be convicted

if they're beautiful.

People judged attractive earn on average 10% more

than their colleagues.

And in the US and Europe, conventionally handsome politicians

attract around 20% more votes.

It's no wonder more people than ever are enhancing their bodies

to reach the beauty ideal in their country.

Meet Diana.

She was once a Colombian beauty queen,

but natural looks were not enough.

Here, voluptuous women are adored.

But maybe not just because a curvy figure is a sure sign of fertility.

There's also a darker side.

Many have surgically enhanced their bodies to fit what's known

in Columbia as the "narco aesthetic".

And what the narcos started, the country copied.

Columbia is now eighth in the world for plastic surgeries per person.

While Diana is the architect of her own enhanced body,

it's often men calling the shots.

You might think, "Why would women go along with this?"

Well, in a fiercely patriarchal society,

it's a way for some women to get ahead.

But it's not just Columbia.

Today, cosmetic surgery is big business everywhere.

In South Korea, a third of 20-something women have

gone under the knife,

most to make their eyes look bigger.

Brazil boasts nearly 80,000 bum enhancements each year.

Whilst in the UK, almost half of plastic procedures

are boob-related.

But it's not all about surgery.

Injectables are booming, too.

Botox is so popular that the government's banned it

for under-18s.

Truth be told, I've thought about it myself.

So, that's why you find me here,

heading to a Beverly Hills doctor's office.

Yeah, you should get your boobs done, too.

Why would you do that?

What do you want me to say?

OFF-CAMERA: Nothing. Ride the elevator like a normal person.

Geez!

I thought it would be full of older ladies, but no.

You look gorgeous. Thank you, so do you.

What are you in for today?

I'm thinking about getting some Botox.

How old are you? 28, turning 29 this year.

Oh, yeah, we're the same age. OK, OK. OK.

You know, it just...it's time.

It's time. Right. It's time.

Are you thinking about it? I mean, I was not, I mean,

I don't know, always a little bit.

Cos it does feel like you get to that age where you're like

"Oh, this is when people start getting stuff done." Right.

And all your friends get it done, and then, you're like,

"Oh, maybe I should." Yeah.

Do you feel like they are celebrities who get stuff done

that don't talk about it enough? Absolutely.

I think that's still the normal right now. Yeah.

I think, you know, I, at least for me,

I feel like we advocate, I advocate towards being more open and honest.

And so, I think transparency, in terms of your...

Transparency is key. And, like, no judgment.

That's kind of why I wanted to do this, cos I was like,

you know, "If I decided to get stuff done, I'll do it on camera."

Known for its anti-aging effects,

Botox is a drug made from a toxin.

When injected, it causes temporary muscle paralysis,

tightening the skin and causing surface wrinkles to fade.

The effects only last around 3-4 months -

but it's a quicker fix than going under the knife.

So, will I go through with it?

I honestly don't know.

All right.

Have you ever had any Botox or fillers? Mm-mm.

OK, all right, so, you know, I'm not here to twist people's arms.

Does anything actually bother you when you look in the mirror?

Yeah. OK. Wrinkles here.

Uh-huh. Erm, you know, I don't really get them as bad here.

Botox came out in the '80s,

and it's there to treat dynamic wrinkles.

Dynamic wrinkles are caused by muscle movements that form in

repetitive areas like, like here.

And also, sometimes it happens with more stress.

Like, if you're furrowing your brow a lot, you get this little

"11" formation - which you start to have the early roots of.

Can you do something about it? Absolutely.

Botox administration in the brow -

so where we get these 11 lines -

has been shown to obviously improve the 11s, but also, it's been shown

to reduce the incidents of depression. Wow!

That's just the craziest thing I've heard. Yeah.

Cos your body senses you're not able to frown

or furrow your brow as much.

Erm, and for whatever reason, you end up being happier.

All right, so we'll put this blue screen down.

And we'll go ahead and get a few photos.

I guess now's not the time to pull a model face, is it?

Perfect. OK, cool. Let's go right over here.

Everyone, this is not OK. You look beautiful.

There's nothing wrong with this one. There's a lot of bags there, doctor.

I mean, you know, some common areas to get Botox, you know,

the forehead, the brow, the sides of the eyes.

You know, most places where people start is they do just a little bit

of Botox - yeah, just right there.

But look at these, doctor.

Why we get this under-eye, kind of, darkness is it's because of

the veins underneath our eyes.

The skin gets very thin as we get older.

You know, I was looking at some footage of you, er,

when you were getting some make-up done -

without make-up, I do see some hollowing you have underneath.

I'll tell you two things that my patients always tell me -

Botox is easier than they thought,

and they shouldn't have waited as long as they did.

It's just one of those things, like, if you look in the mirror every

single day and a single thing bothers you for more than

six months, if you could do something about it,

just do something about it.

Hm. I totally get there's pressure for women to get rid

of imperfections, but I'm not sure my minor facial flaws

are bothering me quite enough to be injected with poison.

Did you want to do any Botox today?

Not today. OK.

Not today, but we'll see.

I'm going to keep checking in, but I think I'm good. Good.

Thanks for coming by. Thank you for everything.

I don't really know what I took away from that, apart from I'm scared.

I'm terrified for the future,

and what's being normalised, in terms of the way people look.

If I imagine now the future, I just see little world leaders

who've just have Botox since they were teenagers.

Is that weird?

So, I just feel like "fixing" all these things isn't really

"fixing" what we need to fix, which is the void within us

to want to be better, or want to, like, change things about ourselves.

But what worries me most is that while today's beauty standards

are almost unreachable without help,

there's still a lot of people pretending they are all-natural.

The problem for me is that people aren't as honest as they should be

about work they get done.

And I don't know, and I'm not saying anyone in particular,

but I do wish someone would stand up and say,

"Look, I've had this done."

But at least people are not selling this idea that they are

that perfect with nothing.

Cos it's not fair.

It's not fair on me! I want to know what's going on.

Like, no, but honestly, it's just a lot for young girls, I think.

And I've spoken to - it's usually my friends' younger siblings

or something, who are like, "No, they're just like that."

Like, "I know I can work out that much and my body could be like that.

"I know they are that beautiful, and I'll never be like that."

And it's like, that's not true.

I know what it's like to be a model.

I know what it's like to be in this industry

and having to sell people this idea, this glamorous idea of what

this life is really like, but it's not, like,

the thing we are selling.

But then, you add on top of it this whole plastic surgery thing,

you're selling a lie.

The desire to change ourselves in the pursuit of beauty

is growing and growing,

and some think social media is making things worse.

It's rife with filters to make us look more beautiful...

..virtually.

And it's in our faces all the time.

But is social media really the bad guy?

Dr Jolanda Veldhuis and Dr Mara Van Der Meulen

use brain scanners to investigate just how social media influences

perceptions of body types amongst teenage girls.

An impressionable group who use socials a lot.

Going to slowly, slowly move you a bit into the scanner.

Today, it's Lotte's turn.

Hey Lotte, are you ready?

THROUGH SPEAKER: Yes.

Lotte's task - to look at pictures of bodies and rate

whether she thinks they're normal or too thin.

She's then shown what other people her age, her peer group think.

As she does this, Jolanda and Mara watch closely for

what's happening inside her head.

OK, here goes Lotte.

Let's play. First one.

So - oh, there she scored it as being of normal weight

and now, she will see the peer feedback.

And peer feedback stated that it is a too-thin model.

Lotte's hit with 60 different images

and has three seconds to judge each one.

So now, it's very interesting to see what is happening in Lotte's brain.

Dr Mara's particularly interested in how Lotte responds when

she and her peer group disagree.

She scours the scans for areas of increased blood flow -

indicating brain activity is ramping up.

When our participants thought that models looked normal,

but the peer feedback was, "No, this model is too thin,"

that was when we noticed the strongest activation of

these two regions.

Which two regions?

Why, the bilateral insular and

the anterior cingulate cortex, of course!

But, erm, what does that even mean?

Bilateral insular is, for example, thought to be important

for experiencing empathy - so thinking about how other people

are feeling - and the dorsal interior singular cortex is also

important for processing feedback.

And this region is important, for example, when thinking

about yourself, and thinking about others, and also,

picking up events that are important to you on a social aspect.

Whenever participants receive feedback that is not in line with

their own opinion, the bilateral insular and anterior cingulate

cortex are activated in our participants.

And these regions are seen as especially important in detecting

a violation of social norms.

Maybe making them think,

"If what I consider normal is not actually normal,

"then how should I view these models"?

Other people's opinions trigger Lotte's brain into questioning

her own judgments.

And the more you do that, the less comfortable you feel.

The combination of being exposed to these ideal bodies,

all these beautiful women and how amazing they look,

and we also know what our peers think of these bodies.

So, that makes it very difficult for adolescents to form their

opinions themselves, because you know what your peers think,

you might start to wonder,

"OK, how should I think about these ideal bodies"?

If you think people look too thin, but your peers all say normal,

you tend to fall into line and cherish skinny, too.

That's why social media where peer feedback is everything

is so influential.

But the good news is it works both ways.

If your friends prefer a curvier body shape,

then after a while, so will you.

Social media isn't all bad,

you just need to watch where you place your likes.

The user is not only the consumer of the media,

but it's also the creator.

Social media offers also a platform to discuss what we think is healthy,

what we think is normal,

but also, what we think is, like, a realistic body image.

I use social media,

and I try to promote individuality and self-acceptance.

But look at these images of me.

Despite the eyebrows and the goofy faces, when I'm modelling,

I still represent that old-school beauty standard.

OFF-CAMERA: Do you feel like you're part of the problem?

I did feel part of the problem for so long, and that's, kind of,

why I tried to move away from it.

There's nothing wrong with beauty, but...

..I personally have - and I've always had a bit of an issue

with the industry, which is fashion.

OK, I can't go into this either.

I can't shit on the hand that feeds me.

Erm, no, I don't think there's anything wrong with beauty.

Beauty has been sold as this one thing about, like,

being skinny and all these things.

And when you meet people whose lives have been destroyed by "beauty",

it's horrifying.

Especially when you're part of that industry, it's not OK.

People will literally destroy their lives over trying to be "beautiful".

Very narrow definitions of beauty in media and our culture

can make us spend money, seek surgery, and feel inadequate.

And sometimes, the damage can be quite extreme.

This is Johannesburg, South Africa.

Here, colonialism and apartheid have seriously restricted ideas

about who is beautiful.

Lesego Make-up Tutorial - scene eight, slate 11, take five.

Lesego Tlhabi is an award-winning satirist using comedy

to confront beauty standards.

Her most popular character is Coconut Kelz.

Howzit, guys, and welcome to Coconut Kelz make-up tutorial.

A lot of you have asked me,

"Kelz, how can I achieve your Caucasian glow?

"And how can I make myself have make-up that will take me

"far away from my Africanness?"

Ew.

Anyway, so I've got four foundation shades.

We've got African Migrant - which we don't want to use!

We've got Meghan and Harry's Baby.

We've got OK-K-K -

and the one that I'll be using today is White Privilege.

Lesego grew up in a mainly white affluent suburb of Johannesburg.

My formative years were very much me being one of only

three Black girls in my class.

For me, that was the first time I realised that anything

close to Blackness was not seen as beautiful.

She noticed that even small differences in skin tone

made a huge difference to how you got treated.

Unfortunately, in a Black-majority country

and Asian-majority countries, the closer you are to whiteness,

you get treated better.

You get thought of as more intelligent,

you get thought of as more beautiful,

and you get more opportunities.

This kind of discrimination is called colourism.

It's a preference for skin colour,

mostly within ethnic groups.

In South Africa, colourism has its roots in colonialism -

the paler you were, the higher your status.

But today, it exists in different forms all over the world.

Lesego also hosts a popular podcast - this time, as herself.

Hi!

Oh, my goodness, how are you?

I'm good, how are you?

Today, with journalist Zanele Mji,

she's tackling colourism within the Black community head-on.

My romantic life at university was nonexistent.

Like, just nonexistent.

And now, when I look back, only when I look back do I understand

the role that colourism played.

You know, there were just certain girls who were light,

petite, with straight hair, who, if they were around,

you may as well be the wallpaper!

Erm, how did you deal with those social dynamics,

in terms of being the darker girl and having some of the conversations

maybe with your light-skinned friends?

It's, like, such a painful thing that divides us as friends,

cos we love to go out together, we love to spend time together.

But, like, there's this constant thing that's happening. Yeah.

That other people are injecting into our dynamic.

And I've talked a lot about colourism with my dark-skinned

friends and I've never discussed it with my light-skinned friends.

Why do you think colourism is the unspoken "ism"?

I think people get uncomfortable with admitting their privilege.

They just do.

I guess it must be tricky for Black women to admit their own privilege,

because it's not a position they're put in often,

But I think we're getting to a place where, as Black women,

we actually need to start owning that stuff.

Lesego wants to bring issues around colourism to

the widest possible audience.

And by mixing authentic and impactful podcasts with

Coconut Kelz's satire and humour,

she delivers a powerful double-punch to white privilege.

So, dab, dab, dab.

As you can see, oh, my goodness,

I'm already a different person.

They would not follow me around the store if I had this colour.

There we go, I've got rid of any signs of my Africanness.

Oh, that's beautiful.

And voila!

Ready for the covers of any fashion magazine.

"Beautiful" - what does that mean? Who made that up?

Beauty is such a fun thing to be able to play with,

but the point is, is that everyone should be able to play with it

and it shouldn't be this thing that are only reached by

a certain amount of people.

Beauty should be completely universal,

and everyone should be able to feel that.

But how do we get to the promised land where we all feel beautiful?

Well, remember that science bit

about familiar faces being attractive?

It seems all you gotta do to love more faces is see more faces.

The more different faces that we're exposed,

to the more different and varied what we find attractive is, right?

So, one of the positive things that is happening right now in a lot

of ad campaigns is just seeing a greater diversity of people.

And that is going to influence and start normalising more of

a range of attractiveness.

So, depending on your environment, the same person can change

what they find more attractive within just three days.

So, let me get this right - just a few days of surrounding

yourself with different faces could change what you find attractive?

Wow!

Diversity in our media, on our TVs, on our billboards -

that's the key to our beauty revolution right there.

People's attitudes are changing.

And, in fact, I hope that with things like series like this

that bring knowledge about these biases, about,

"Well, why did I think this? Why did I think that?"

That that can actually change the way that we perceive faces.

Knowledge is power.

So, instead of saying, "Well, these biases shouldn't exist,"

understanding that they're there so that we can combat them.

Now there's a group taking those ideas out of our campaigns

and into the world...

..loudly displaying an inclusive new vision of

what's hot and happening.

Line the models up there, so they're out the way.

And then, that gives this space for audience.

University student Astelia is in London's Trafalgar Square

to set up a ground-breaking fashion show, The Real Catwalk.

This is where the models enter from.

It's a yearly event which rejects mainstream standards

by modelling real people,

to show that no-one can dictate what is and isn't beautiful.

Its campaign for more diverse representation in fashion and beauty

has inspired similar body-positive events around the world,

empowering people of all kinds.

For Astelia, though, it's also personal.

I'd always had struggles with my body and disordered eating.

Constantly in this spiral of, like, self-hatred,

not feeling good enough and trying to find self-worth.

I walked the runway, like, in my bikini,

and I felt so powerful and so beautiful.

I'd never been in a bikini before, doing The Real Catwalk ever.

And from that moment, it completely and utterly changed my life.

Astelia hasn't looked back since.

Hundreds of other people are here, too, with all sorts of

body shapes and sizes.

Action shot!

Representing people as they are and showing that everybody,

regardless of how they are, can be and is beautiful.

Beauty is an expression of the self, not an expression of the body.

We're torturing ourselves.

We need to put our bodies out there and show that we are real,

we are normal, we are worthy.

No matter what you look like.

Bringing The Real Catwalk to the streets shows just how

the world of beauty is starting to shift.

It's inspired so many across the globe

to claim beauty for themselves.

We're going against all of these types of societal norms

and inherent pressures that are, sort of, forced upon us.

We are protesting those issues, and we are pushing those boundaries.

So, it is so much more than just an event.

If everybody could move over here, we're going to get us going!

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It's not easy showing yourself off in public...

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..but being upfront about challenging beauty norms

is the only way to get things to change.

All bodies are beautiful no matter, how different they are.

I just feel on cloud nine.

So many times in my life, I've been told,

"You're not good enough. you're not normal.

"You don't fit into the beauty standards," and you feel left out.

You feel, like - I hide away, hide my body, hide my lines

and my tubes, and actually, no, I shouldn't hide.

You are beautiful. You are gorgeous just as you are.

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There were so many different types of people here today.

There were people celebrating their scars,

being outside of a gender binary,

their queerness, their curves.

Having everyone here with this kind of celebration of people,

it's just incredible.

This is real modelling.

Ah! Sorry.

I'm so, so teary.

Well, I'm nearly at the end of my journey to explore

female beauty in all its forms.

I've met extraordinary people who are pushing boundaries

and opening up incredibly rigid ideals.

But here in the US, there's one more person who's

a huge part of changing our understanding of beauty...

..and they've invited me to hang out.

You know, I've never been to Saks before. Really? Never.

Hi. Hello.

Welcome. Thank you very much.

Hi, Alfie.

This is author, influencer, and activist Alok Vaid-Menon.

So, like... These are functional.

Those are stunning, functional. Yeah.

As a nonbinary, gender-nonconforming person,

Alok's been told they're ugly...

..by fools, obviously!

Is this your house? Yes, it's...

My living room's right over here. These are my best friends.

This is your best friend.

I've been taking posing practices all day.

Alok uses their talents to fight back against the old-school

beauty standards that shaped their early life -

and still permeate much of fashion, the beauty industry,

and our society.

I can't wait to play dress-up together,

here at Sak's Fifth Avenue.

For me, beauty is an everyday practice of freedom.

And, yes, there are people who are upset about it and say,

"Alok, you should shave, or you should do this,"

or, "Life would be easier" - and that's all irrelevant to me.

In fact, if anything, it's testament to the power of this beauty.

Is the purpose of beauty to make people comfortable,

or is the purpose of beauty to be yourself?

So, how do you define beauty?

I think it's about un-defining beauty.

We have such limited images of the world of what it means

to be beautiful, that sometimes, when I look at myself, I'm like,

"I've never seen anyone in the world look like this".

"Un-defining beauty." Why have any definition whatsoever?

And I completely agree with you, because how much fun you can have

with clothes, but especially when you don't stick to anyone's rules.

What it's really about is the fear of being seen.

I think most people are petrified with people looking at them.

And one of the luxuries of being gender-nonconforming is,

from a very young age, I had to get over that fear.

Because if I live my life being concerned about other people

looking at me, I wouldn't exist.

It's so liberating, because now, I genuinely feel like

I'm only getting dressed for myself.

I've been in the fashion industry for a very long time, and I...

It definitely redefined my idea of what beauty was,

because for me, I used to dress up constantly.

And I guess it also has something to do with being in the public eye,

but that's why I love wearing black, cos I like to hide. Right.

I like to not stand out as much.

I like to, kind of, be... yeah, more hidden, I suppose.

I think fame eats away at people's creativity in some ways.

Sure, 100%. Because you always have to be editing, policing,

"What are people going to think?

"People are going to have issues about what I'm doing,

"what I'm saying, who I am, what I look like. So what?"

Like, I only look like what I want to look like,

and no-one else really matters. Yeah.

It's liberating. That is beauty.

So, the million-dollar question -

maybe the billion-dollar question -

is beauty and what we find attractive genuinely

changing in our generation?

Is there a beauty revolution under way?

Well, it seems so - and I want to be a part of it.

So, let's join together and bring on a more inclusive future.

I have a moral obligation, because mothers will come up to me

with their young daughters and say,

"My daughter wants to model because of you".

And I would go, "no, no, no.

"Please don't say that. I will cry. Like, don't."

I think beauty is far more, like, if you're a good person or not.

I meet people who are so much more beautiful because

they are confident about themselves no matter what you look like -

skin, shape, hair, colour, whatever, where you're from -

that is beautiful.

It's about what makes you happy.

It's about what makes you feel confident, and what you feel sexy.

Not what about you turns other people on.

It's about what makes you turn yourself on about yourself.

That, for me, is the most interesting part.

OFF CAMERA: Oh, my God! We did it! Ye-e-es!

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