Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall

We’ve all heard of abandoning your scale for the sake of sanity, to break a habit of vanity, and to gain a healthier outlook, but Kjerstin Gruys is taking that one (million) step(s) further by giving up mirrors. Kjerstin is a 20-something sociologist and PhD student who studies “the relationship between ‘beauty’ and inequality.” She has vowed to go without mirrors for one year.That’s insane, right? Well let’s add this—she got married earlier this month, without anymirrors. Not even a picture (well, one, but she had someone else choose it and she didn’t see it until after the wedding)! I would die.But those are the rules. Yes, Kjerstin follows a set of official rulesthat were established at the start of her reflection-less journey, and has even upped the ante a couple times with ‘no photo’ and ‘no makeup’ addendums.This girl is amazingly dedicated. And that dedication has earned her amazing results, not just for her project, but for herself.

Of course, like everyone, she still wavers. Last week, while poolside on her honeymoon, she looked down at her bikini-clad self and liked what she saw. She snapped a photo with her phone—as much to remember the feeling as the image. But then she realized that, somehow, the camera had made that smooth, svelte image appear “lumpy and out of proportion.” She posted it anyway. Amazing, told ya’.When I first heard about the goals Kjerstin had set for herself, I poked around her blog; scanning posts and rules. I don’t consider myself a vain person, but, if it tells you anything about me, the title that jumped off the screen the most was ‘Abandon Control.’ Yeah, no, I’m not so good at that. But I love this experiment, even if I don’t think I could fully execute it.

But what about introducing this way of thinking into my bad-photo-deleting lifestyle?Kjerstin mentioned to me that she’s not yet a mom, but I can say that being a mom and working from home has definitely lessened my compulsion to get dressed up and made up, and I mean that in the best of ways; I’ve noticed that the circles under my eyes camouflage themselves if I leave them alone, that my hair looks better after a day of wear (dirt, whatever), and that I often actually look better in “at home” clothes than work clothes.Of course, that doesn’t mean that I use those things as an excuse to not get dressed or care for myself at all, or that I don’t fall subject to my old self-critical habits when I do venture out.I think I’d last one day. Perhaps a weekend if I wasn’t going anywhere. 200+ days into this 365 day experiment, Kjerstin has not looked back. There is so much more to her story (spoiler: her Mirror vs Scale posts discuss how she’s simultaneously a recovered anorexic, a feminist, and on a diet—and how majorly those things conflict each other); you needto read more.I’m going to think more, reflect if you will, about how this fits into my own life, and I encourage you to do the same.