Can you make me beautiful? I want to be beautiful again.

    Sugar, everybody wants to be beautiful, but only a few of us are born that way.

        So what is beauty? Is it only for a few femme fatales? Does that minority still dictate the majority's concept of beauty?

        Or is the idea of American beauty changing, expanding along with the numbers of older — but vital — adults and people of color in the population?

        Putting a finger on what defines beauty is as difficult as some people's painstaking efforts to achieve it. Is it something you're born with, or can a payment plan to a plastic surgeon amend what nature dished out? Can it be applied from a tube or a jar or does it really emanate from within?

Supermodels in 1990 (from left): Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford. (Peter Lindbergh photo) | ZOOM |

        “Know what makes a woman beautiful? To me, it's the way she carries herself, her intelligence, the way she touches me,” says Marcus Holbrook, an account executive from Mason. “The most beautiful woman I ever met was actually hideous on the inside. That's why I appreciate inner beauty. It's harder to see visually but it's much more beautiful than anything on the outside.”

        Tantra yoga teacher Antoinette Asimus sees the glow of beauty during every class she teaches.

        “The light and energy through people's eyes when the class is over is incredible,” says Ms. Asimus, who lives in College Hill.

        “When they are in touch, if they have a connection with a sense of themselves, their eyes light up, their faces glow. I see it in men and women. No matter whether they have classic features or look like regular people, the inner beauty that radiates from a strong sense of self is just beautiful.”

        Webster's defines beauty as “an assemblage or graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense.”

        Several new books celebrate the universality of beauty.

        • Black Beauty (Thunder's Mouth Press; $39.95) by Ben Arogundade: “The real meaning of beauty should be an individual's true expression of the self. It should be about aesthetic autonomy — of being one's own person.”

        • Latina Beauty (Hyperion; $29.95): “True beauty comes from within. It's not the makeup you apply or the way you style your hair. Instead, beauty is energy, an attitude that is exciting, dynamic and attractive.”

        • Vogue Women (Thunder's Mouth Press; $49.95): “Today, a woman is not disqualified from beauty because she has a large, bony nose, like Barbra Streisand's, or by the color of her skin, like Iman's or Naomi Campbell's, or because of oversized features, like Julia Roberts'. All have a place in the gallery of 20th-century beauty.”

        But what about those of us who don't even know where this “gallery” is? One magazine promotes beauty from within, another says outside features are everything. For many American women, the latter opinion apparently rules. American women garner 30 percent of the global cosmetics market.

        The new book, For Appearance' Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Beauty, Good Looks and Grooming, reveals that American women buy an average of 1,484 tubes of lipsticks, 2,055 jars of skin care products and 1,324 eyeliners, eyeshadows and mascaras every minute.

        Although the sales numbers are staggering, professional makeup artist Jeni Lee Dinkel thinks what's more important is why women buy cosmetics.

        “I can do anybody's makeup to make them look good,” says Ms. Dinkel, who owns Jeni Lee Cosmetics in Tower Place, downtown. “The rest has to come from the inside.

        “It's fine to get the peels and the makeup and all that but, in the process, you gotta hang on to your identity. You gotta hang on to that scar, that piece of your identity, and celebrate it. Even if you do the (cosmetic) surgery, all those flaws are still inside. Whatever the mindset was that drove you to that point is still inside and you can't cut that away.”

        Despite the increasing numbers of Asian, Latina, Hispanic and African women and the success of models such as Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Alex Wek, most advertisers continue to insist that magazine issues that feature black women on the cover sell fewer issues.

        This phenomenon perplexes model agency executives such as Joe Guerreia, owner of New View Talent in Evendale.

        “It used to be in the '80s, all models looked alike, like Christie Brinkley,” Mr. Guerreia says. “Now, models are dramatically different. They have some sort of quirk about them that makes them different. One may have a funky little hump on her nose where clients used to only want girls with upturned noses.

        “I think I know why they (clients) have gone for edgy, or non-cookie cutter, girls lately,” says Mr. Guerreia. “The average person looks at their magazine and sees a model with a larger nose selling something. The reader thinks "I have a funky nose, so it's OK to have a different-looking nose,' which will make her buy more clothes or whatever and the company makes more money.”

        Mr. Guerreia also believes different types of models are becoming more in demand.

        “Now that the baby boomers are getting older, I'm constantly looking for older models. That group of people want to see more "normal females' who look like they do in their publications, so we've started placing ads in mature, 50s-plus magazines. There's also a demand for size 14-plus models.”

        Models who look more like the girl in your living room than the traditional “girl next door” are popping up everywhere. Even the celebrity covers are “aging,” showing actresses like Susan Sarandon.

        So has the concept of beauty been abandoned or expanded? Is there another level of unattainable gorgeousness to die for or is it that maybe advertisers finally are listening to what most female consumers have been saying: Every woman is capable of having the strutting carriage of Tina Turner, the kissable lips of Jennifer Lopez, the disarming appeal of Sandra Bullock and the wildfire of Catherine Zeta-Jones.

        Maya Angelou's poem, Phenomenal Woman, tries to get at the beauty in every woman:

    Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
    I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size but when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies.
    I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips.
    I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

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