You Don’t Have to Try, Just Be You

It is no secret that the media portrays women a certain way and many women feel the pressure from society to look a certain way. The ‘standard’ is everywhere women look. It’s in the magazines, the movies, songs and music videos, online. There is a constant image being portrayed to women that sets the stage for how they should look. Society wants women to all fit into a single mold and be what society believes is beautiful.

Colbie Caillat released the song “Try” in response to the pressure to the look and act a certain way that is constantly put on women. The song was released in 2014 and has been very successful, especially when it first came out. The song promotes that all women are beautiful in their own way. In the lyrics Caillat says:

“You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing”

Caillat is confronting the idea that women work as hard as possible to fit into a mold that is impossible to fit into. The very first verse of the song points out all of the things women do in order to fit into the mold that they weren’t created to fit into. Caillat focuses on the fact that all women are beautiful and they should embrace who they are and the beauty that they hold. The last verse of the song is beautiful and simple.

“Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don’t you like you?
’Cause I like you”

At the end of the day, all of the work we put into looking and acting like we are supposed to doesn’t matter if we don’t like who we are. We have to like ourselves first.

The music video for the song is also very positive to women. The music video features many different women from all different walks of life and backgrounds. They are all featured in the video as they slowly begin taking their makeup off throughout the video. At the end, they have completely removed the mask that was hiding their faces. They are being themselves and they are being proud of who they are.