I would like to believe that everyone is philanthropic—everyone has a great desire to help. That’s why we hit ‘Like’ on posts of Upworthy, easily send virtual love to featured Humans of New York, and, conversely, why we’re in collective outrage over posts of animals being maltreated. I’d like to believe that at our very core we are actually good even if recent events have led us to think otherwise.
The desire to help is always ingrained in us. What hinder us, maybe, from acting on this noble desire are the misconceptions we have on what ‘helping’ really means and what it demands.
Charity is such an intimidating and concept. Think about it: how many times have you deliberately avoided a stall at the mall where volunteers try to get you to sign up for their cause? Charity always registers as an obligation—a duty that requires a lot of time and effort to fulfill. All of a sudden it feels like weekends will suddenly be booked helping kids or building houses under the harsh sun (not that those couldn’t be fun don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried both). But I think we have this notion that charity means sacrifice—and lots of it. It also sometimes feels like it demands a change in lifestyle, something we may not be ready for.
But helping doesn’t have to be as grand as dedicating all weekends to field work. And I especially appreciate when brands make it so easy to help others out that saying no isn’t even a consideration. Take Benefit Cosmetics, for instance. A cult favourite of beauty aficionados, Benefit Cosmetics, aside from having the cutest products with the most peacock-worthy packaging, is finally rolling out their outreach efforts here in the Philippines after such huge success runs in the US.
The premise is simple. All proceeds from brow waxes during the month of May will go to help the local partner charity, Mano Amiga. Mano Amiga is a private, non-profit organization that offers affordable education for girls of low-income families. Each brow wax service costing PHP700 will provide one of the ff: a 2-hour leadership training session for girls, 3 months’ worth of school supplies (imagine that!), or a 4-month livelihood and empowerment program for a student’s mom, because part of helping families is also equipping the parents. Benefit’s Global Beauty Authority, Annie Ford Danielson, recently graced the launch of the campaign here in the Philippines and it was a huge success as everybody seemed to leave inspired and keen on helping.
I’m extremely honoured to have been part of inviting people to have their brows waxed in May via the video we shot to easily make a huge difference in the lives of little girls everywhere. Empowering little girls and enabling them to pursue their passions is a great gift to anyone—to underprivileged kids with untapped potential even moreso.
For the video, they asked me what being bold means and what empowerment looks like to me. I said a bunch of things but in reality, when it comes down to it, I think empowerment is achieved by empowering others. And looking good is such an easy way to do good too, no?
Watch the video (above) and get your brows waxed this May! Both men and women are welcome.
Thank you so much, Benefit, for letting me be part of such a special project!
Benefit Browbars are available in Greenbelt 5, Trinoma, Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, Alabang Town Center, SM Seaside City Cebu, BGC Central Square, Rustan’s Makati and Rustan’s Shangri-la and will run from May 1-31, 2017
