The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - "you're not ugly, you're just poor"

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Do you ever wonder: am I ugly or am I just poor?Glow up with me mentally and physically.💜 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeunlimited/💛TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@zoeunlimited //🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro0:17 The ideal beauty& how money comes into play1:20 “Natural beauty” comes at a cost4:08 Beauty standards set by money6:47 Some thoughts on the price of beauty

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Have you ever wondered, am I ugly or am I just poor? The ideal beauty and how money comes into play. The idea of naturally young and beautiful women has long been romanticized. Every female character in historical literature fits into this trope. Beauty without effort. However, when it comes to reality, it's nothing new how the rich will always get a competitive edge on looking. more quote-unquote beautiful. It might have been in a direct sense of better garments, better hygiene, better living conditions, or indirectly in ways such as

simply a better gene pool, the wealthy could be more selective. Hence rich people marry pretty people and have pretty offspring who are endowed with wealth and marry other pretty offspring of other rich families. Like yeah, historical rich and hot couples can also get very unlucky and have ugly offspring. But the lucky thing is they They had the money to fix that even prior to the plastic surgery era and the money to marry someone gorgeous to fix the genetic legacy. Shifting gear to today's time, let's talk about how natural beauty comes at a cost. The obsession with looking naturally beautiful has extended from the past to the present.

We get inundated with gorgeous snapshots of celebrities and influencers online with the I Just woke up look or hashtag no makeup look all the time. And think to ourselves, yep, some people just won the genetic lottery, which could be very much true. But there's a whole lot of price tags behind natural beauty as well. Let's just start with the basics. Our skin is the largest organ of our body and plays a huge role in our level of attractiveness. It's just something passed down from evolution since historically good skin indicated no mutation or diseases. Is it possible to have porous porcelain skin naturally?

Absolutely. But aside from genetics, maintenance is so important. Let's not even talk about lasers, Botox, serums, facials, lamars, and SK2s for the moment. Starting with the very basics. Healthy and radiant skin comes at the foundation of a healthy diet and good environment. Like I doubt if you won't see a difference in your skin texture, if you eat McDonald's fries every day versus wild-caught organic salmon and USDA certified green smoothies every day.

On top of that. Living in a hyper-stressful environment that's not very clean or has terrible weather conditions will create a difference in your skin texture. Then a life of breathing in Malibu ocean waves every single day. Natural healthy glowing hair is also an extension of lifestyle as a very basic foundation without even considering the millions of products to enhance the beauty. And then tea, yes some people are very lucky to be born with perfectly straight teeth, aka me being very grateful for all the dental costs,

save from braces and other dental procedures. But that straight white teeth look as part of organic beauty often comes with high cost of braces, veneers, whitening products as well. And that's not even mentioning the whole self-care industry focused on skincare, tan, body, hair, nails, everything. The drive-to-look perfect, quote-unquote naturally, created a trillion-dollar industry that people happily throw money into

to make themselves look even 1% better in a, I was born like this, way. But no matter how natural, it may seem, a lot of these natural beauty trademarks are not achievable without a lot of human effort. Can you naturally have zero pores and zero acne scarves? Maybe, but there are also bazillion ways to achieve that through facials, products, lasers, and so on, not to mention the no makeup makeup looks, filters, and plastic surgery behind all the claimed natural looks. Speaking of which, let's talk about plastic, surgery and how beauty standards are set by money. Ayo, plastic surgery check.

Plastic surgery. A topic so big that I need at least another solid video to touch on. But it's become so prevalent that not only is it normalized into the looks of celebrities, but also secretively became the procedures that influencers and everyday regular people on TikTok get. Obviously, there is a whole spectrum of plastic surgery from a nose job to BBL to, I don't know, some other non-invasive procedures. But the technology is getting so good these days. Plus, the fact that so many people are getting it, that you almost can't tell apart what's actually natural versus work done. Make you wonder whenever you see all these gorgeous and almost perfectly not human celebrities.

And you're like, what, like, how? Excuse me? I do not look like that as a human. Or maybe not even a celebrity, but some influencer you follow on TikTok who you think is really pretty. A lot of the times people who had worked on celebrities, influencers, people around us will bury it as a secret. Like they will not only not disclose that, but also like deny it when someone questions. I mean sure, it's not really anyone's responsibility to declare to the world the types of work they got done. Transparency is greatly appreciated but it's not something we can enforce onto others.

But false claims, especially coming from a very influential person, will create a lot of unrealistic expectations. Making people assume that you just went through puberty or weight loss while getting a faux face and body makeover in the surgery room is unethical. I'm not against plastic surgery or think it's something to be ashamed of, but I am against getting plastic surgery and placing that into a natural miracle. Yes, that I am. Like yeah, it's totally possible to hit puberty in your 30s, get a fuller lip, and smooth their skin by the day. With the increasing prevalence of plastic surgery, our society's definition of beauty is going in a direction of unachievable perfection of symmetry, extremely smooth face, extremely sharp jaw, perfect proportions

that are unrealistic without plastic surgery. And the issue is, these expensive faces are setting the new standards, making cost common everyday people compare themselves to these new and stricter ideals and some thoughts on the price of beauty so here are some of my thoughts on the whole situation of you're not ugly you're just poor to a large extent i think it has already become an accepted reality whether we like it or not if you don't have the financial means you may never achieve the level of beauty that is deemed appropriate by our society at the moment because that level of perfection is not natural it might appear to you as natural because A, it's becoming so normalized because so many people

has similar levels of work done on them. And B, it's just not talked about enough of all that like level of effort and money put into achieving that level of beauty. It's almost as if you're taking a test that you can't pass without cheating and everyone around you is trying to cheat without getting caught. Whether if you want to pass or not is dependent on if you want to play by the unspoken rules of the game. which you don't have to. The beauty standards here should not be or I hope not to be your only true North Star

because they are highly subjective and can change any minute. Imagine risking your life getting a BBL and before two years later. Everyone wants a tiny butt. I don't know. I think the important message here is that since there is a lack of transparency around people's looks online because chances are they are not cheap, we need to stop comparing ourselves to this money-induced,

If it's something you're after, no problem at all, go follow your dreams. But comparing a face and body with zero work done, with a face and body sculpted by the best plastic surgeons at Beverly Hills, is a waste of time. It's like comparing apples to catch up. There are also infinite ways to define beauty. It doesn't always have to comply with the mainstream standards. For me, in addition to skincare fitness fashion and so on,

something I think that really elevates a person's attrines. a person's attractiveness and really just makes them overall more charming is their level of death. And yeah, that could also be very expensive if you really try to make it that way. Or simply start with books, audiobooks, films, local galleries, you broaden your dimensions beyond just surface level. So there is a lot more I want to cover on the statement of you're not ugly, you're just poor. But that could be for another time. Let me know in the comments if you agree with the statement. Don't forget to like and subscribe and follow me on Instagram to join my growth journey.

See you guys next week. Bye.