How I Started Channeling My Margot Robbie

Every time I’ve seen her, the same thoughts always come to mind. Margot Robbie is beautiful and I wish I looked like that.

But at the same time, I was longing to look like Margot Robbie, I firmly believed it was impossible. Of course, it’s impossible to look exactly like another person, but I didn’t even see us as being in the same league. While she looked mature, I looked childish. While she looked effortless, I looked lazy. While she stood out in a crowd, I faded into one.

Growing up, I always wanted to be the kind of woman that drew people’s eyes. Someone people would see and think, “Gosh, she’s gorgeous.”

But at the same time, I didn’t really see that as attainable. I convinced myself that some women are beautiful, the Margot Robbies of the world, while the rest of us are easy on the eyes but not much beyond that. 

I think we all have our Margot Robbies. We all have that one person we think embodies everything a beautiful woman is supposed to be. Maybe she’s an actress, a singer, a friend, a sister, or a stranger we stalk on Instagram. We convince ourselves that she is out of our league. She has something we do not and will never have. We cannot compete.

Except what if it isn’t about a competition? What if she has something we don’t have yet, but it’s something we can attain? What if there isn’t some giant canyon between me and Margot Robbie? What if beauty isn’t just something you’re given, but something you build?

A month or so ago, I decided to look up images of Margot Robbie without makeup. And while she’s still definitely beautiful, I realized she looked much more attainable. That’s when it clicked. The way Margot Robbie looks without makeup is the way I looked all the time.

While she has a skincare routine, I would skip washing my face a few nights a week. While she goes out with her hair styled, I didn’t own a blowdryer. While she wears makeup, I could barely apply eyeliner. I realized the gap between Margot Robbie and I was not so much a matter of who is beautiful and who is not. It was a matter of who is trying. I could cross that canyon, and the bridge to do so was just a little more effort.

This isn’t to downplay the natural beauty of women like Margot Robbie. That woman has a phenomenal bone structure and with or without makeup, she is gorgeous. But I realized I was comparing my raw unpolished self to someone’s finished product. It wasn’t fair to me, because I could never measure up. But it also wasn’t fair to Margot Robbie because I wasn’t acknowledging how much work it takes to look the way she does.

Margot Robbie puts time into her beauty. She cultivates her appearance. And I realized I can too.

I’m definitely no beauty guru, and it will still be a long time before I can figure out how to effectively blow-dry my hair with a round brush. But the effort I’ve been putting into my appearance has already had huge benefits for my self-esteem. I remember what it felt like the first time I looked in my bedroom mirror to see myself with styled hair, light makeup, and an outfit that made me feel beautiful.

“Wow,” I thought. “I look like Margot Robbie.”