Lessons of Worth: Elle Fanning on Being Imperfectly Enough

When we look at celebrities we see covetable hair, perfect teeth, flawless skin and features that look like they were manufactured in a lab by the wizard himself. But what we don’t see are the pressures they may be under to present perfectly, the desire to be wanted and accepted and the doubts they may have about being enough — stars really are just like us, even in some of the not so positive ways. 

L’Oréal Paris works with a roster of dynamic and diverse celebrities who understand and align with the brand’s mission to ensure that all girls and women understand that they are worth it — imperfections and all. And each of them has their own relationship with beauty and empowerment and what it means to be worthy. In its Lessons of Worth series, which celebrates women’s empowerment through its ambassadors, actress Elle Fanning sends an inspiring message about being okay with how you look, how you live and what you have, and feeling like you are enough no matter what.

She recites her speech almost poetically, as we see her face become visually distorted with every line, showing us what she could look like with those physical changes.

“Am I worth it? Am I enough? Why aren’t my lips bigger, rounder? Why aren’t my cheeks more defined? Why can’t I have eyes as big, as brown, as blue or as green as hers? Why does it seem like she doesn’t ask herself any of these questions?” she says.

She then goes on to explain that social media makes it easy to look at the lives of others and compare ourselves, poking at all the things that seem to be lacking, never truly celebrating all the weird, quirky and individual accomplishments we make.

“Behind every filter and retouched image, behind every cute, funny video, and inside every perfectly decorated apartment, is someone who lives with their own struggles and their own insecurities,” says Fanning. “Somebody who, just like you, just like me, wonders if they’re really enough. But the thing is, that’s what we should be celebrating. We’re all different; we’re all imperfect. And that’s just perfect.

She reminds us that our bodies are ours to embrace and we have the right to feel good in how we look, “we’re all enough, just as we are and we’re all worth it.”

Next: Lessons of Worth: Gemma Chan on Beauty and Empowerment and Equality

Photo Credit: Courtesy of L'Oréal Paris