On Beauty was published on Allure.com, August 2016..

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Where do you hold your beauty? Do you see it when you look in the mirror? Is it in your face, in the depth of your eyes, the hood of their lids, the pucker of your lips? Is it in the pigment of your skin? Soft and white like the inside of your favorite coffee mug, or rich and caramel like a perfectly roasted chicken, or deep and dark and chocolatey brown. Do you see it in your hands, in the shape of your fingers, thick like sausages or thin and witchy, in the way they feel, and touch, and move. The articulation of each digit, the bend of your knees, the curve in your hips.

Do you see it in your body? When you run and sweat and push and power through. When your chest is heaving, side cramping, knees shaking. When you’re grinding. Is that when you see yourself clearly? See your muscles burning, stomach churning, testing the limits of your reality. 

Do you see it in your bedroom? Warm bodies pressing damp sheets, hands pressing hands, hips pressing hips. Do you see it in the way he looks at you, can you see it in yourself? In trembling moments, sparkling desire, is that where you hold your beauty? Is it shining and brilliant, brazen and raw, or does it emerge slowly, like a long snake coiled deep within?

Do you see it in the trees, in your moments with the earth? When you are pulled into the ocean, underneath the frothing, churning waves, does it sing out from you then? Face stinging from salt and sunshine, skin crispy and rough, sand between your fingers, crunched between your toes. Do you see your beauty in the mirror of the sky? I can see it there.