In May 2015, 18-year-old Chicago arts student Shea Glover posted her high school arts project on YouTube. The results were astonishing.

People’s reactions ran the gamut from anger to dismissal, but the most common reaction?  When they were told by Shea that they are being filmed because they are beautiful, their faces light up, and often, tears flow.

Shea wrote this under her YouTube post:

“I conducted an independent project, which evidently turned into a social experiment halfway through, regarding beauty at my performing arts high school in Chicago. I want to clarify that my intentions were not to get a reaction out of people. I was simply filming beauty and this is the result. “

What is it about the recognition of their beauty that makes most people shine? I suspect because it is a quality of our soul or true essence that is being seen. And we so rarely see that in ourselves, let alone each other.

Or as mystic poet Kahlil Gibran wrote, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”

Enjoy, and get out your Kleenex box!

Relevant Favorite:

Dove Experiment Parody: How Men See Ourselves. {Video}

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Relephant bonus:

Author: Lori Ann Lothian

Editor: Travis May

Photo: Video Still