Alessia Cara (née Alessia Caracciolo), the incredible twenty-year old singer, appears in the September issue of Glamour. Alessia possesses a powerhouse voice that she uses to sing about subjects facing young people today. Her breakout single, Here, is about an uncomfortable sober person at a house party. Wild Things speaks to finding your own people. Her latest song might be her most personal to date. Scars to Your Beautiful is about embracing your flaws and learning to love yourself. To further her point, the video (below) features cameos from cancer patients, transgender people and people with different body shapes, skin conditions and scars. The reason the song is so personal to Alessia is because she grew up with big, curly Italian hair when everyone else had straight hair (funny enough, having straight hair, I coveted my Italian friend’s beautiful, curly hair growing up). Not only did she want to look like those around her but her hair began falling out in high school, possibly from her straightening it. The essay is Alessia’s words as told to Brooke Hauser, here is a portion of what she said:

We all look at ourselves in the mirror and think, I hate this, I wish that were different—from something minor like, ‘I have a pimple today,’ to something major like, ‘I don’t want to live anymore because I don’t think I’m good enough.’ In ‘Scars,’ I wanted to tell people, ‘There isn’t one way to look beautiful—you are beautiful, and it’s the world that needs to change.’

Having a mom as a hairdresser was really awesome: I was always her test dummy. I’ve had every style, every color you could imagine. But I have always struggled with my hair one way or another. There were times when I just wanted to look like everyone else because people would make comments like, ‘Oh, your hair is so frizzy.’

So, I started straightening my hair. And maybe that was the reason for it… In late elementary school, early high school, I started losing my hair in chunks in the shower. It was one of the scariest things. It got to the point where it was visibly gone. I struggled with that a lot, especially going into high school. You have so many pressures—what people are going to think of you—and I was going into it losing all my hair. I had, like, nothing left. It was patches of missing hair that people would point out, because people are mean in high school.

I was constantly looking for hairstyles to hide the bald spots. And I didn’t know why it was happening. I just kept thinking, ‘Why am I so young and having to deal with this?’ I didn’t want people to look at me, I didn’t want people to get too close. Even now, I struggle with it; sometimes, you can see that my hair is missing in some spots. I have just learned how to accept it. Being in the public eye, you’re always worried about what angle people are going to take pictures of you at. I don’t really care anymore. I just let my hair dry naturally; I don’t hide it.

[From Glamour]

Alessia said that when addressing Scars, such as interviews or performances, she is doing it makeup free because she doesn’t want to promote embracing your true self without presenting her 100% true self. I put on makeup like an outfit – some days I wear it for a certain look and sometimes I don’t for various reasons. I don’t see it as camouflage. However, I love that she is so committed to her message. I have five scars including two face scars, although they are small. I kind of like my scars because they are unique to me and each has a story. I also have two bald spots, one above each temple. I used to be able to cover them with the hair but age has made it that they are visible every time I pull my hair back so I tend not to pull it back anymore. However, I hate my nose. It’s crooked and it a big bulb at the end. I’ll admit to experimenting with contouring but ultimately, when I look in the mirror, I see my parents noses and I like that I look like them… even if they have messed up noses.

I know self-acceptance has almost become a talking point with some but it’s personal to Alessia and I think she found a powerful way to get her message across. Watch the video below and tell me if you don’t see your scars in a new light.

Alessia with her brother, Dario, he is as adorable as she is:

Photo credit: WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos