At the L’Oreal Paris 14th annual Women of Worth Awards, actresses and brand spokeswomen reminded women to value self-worth.
The annual Women of Worth Awards, now in its 14th year, was recently held in New York City, where actresses and L’Oreal Paris’ spokeswomen including Helen Mirren, Viola Davis, Amber Heard, Camila Cabello, Aja Naomi King and Andie MacDowell, came together to celebrate inspiring women, who are making efforts to positively impact their communities through philanthropy.
Every year the award ceremony, which is a philanthropic program, honours 10 women from across the country, who are volunteering their time and energy to causes they think are important. Inspired by the beauty brand’s tagline, ‘Because You’re Worth It’, the event was all about women celebrating women and reminding each other of their self-worth.
The Hollywood Reporter (THR) noted: “This year’s honorees were recognized for everything from hand-making baskets of items for families with babies who have Down Syndrome to teaching healthy self-esteem and safe sex to teenage girls, mentoring immigrant girls about their cultural identity and providing free legal and therapeutic support for adolescents who have survived things like conversion therapy.”
Speaking at the event, Helen Mirren said, “So many people live in this world with insecurity, with fear, with lack of confidence, especially women and [L’Oreal has] really expanded that understanding out, and tonight is a manifestation of that.”
The Queen actress further went on to say that with all the evil, hatred, antagonism and paranoia in the world, to be able to see women like these, who are doing so much good, is inspiring. “We need to recognize it more,” she added.
How to Get Away With Murder actress Viola Davis, who became an Age Perfect ambassador in September 2019, echoed similar sentiments and shared that whenever she struggles with her self-worth, which is often, she looks at her daughter and the things that gives her strength and make her feel like she has to step up. “I constantly remind myself, there’s got to be something in me that was strong enough and resilient enough and beautiful enough to get me to this position,” she said, adding that she loves celebrating young women who she believes will be the future of this country and of this world. “It’s great to see this force of love and service in one room all coming from feminine power,” she asserted.
Though Davis thinks there’s still a lack of support amongst people in this world, Andie MacDowell feels like women, in particular, have come a long way, considering the oppression they’ve faced throughout history.
The brand’s spokeswomen including singer, songwriter, and actress Camila Cabello and How to Get Away With Murder star, Aja Naomi King also stressed on how important it is to not only recognize the women who are fighting for these causes across the country, but also for all women to remember their own self-worth.
“The one thing all these women have in common is they never told themselves no,” said King. “They constantly found a way to do something that wasn’t only going to impact themselves but others. They recognized something lacking, something missing and immediately decided they had to do something about it. In order to do that, and acknowledge your self-worth, you have to say yes to yourself and yes to others.”
Cabello on the other hand shared, “Nowadays in the world, our attention is caught by the wrong things and things that don’t really add meaning or value in our lives and this does. Seeing people who are making such a difference in the world and using whatever platform they have to do good is so powerful.”
While each spokeswoman agreed that they face plenty of struggles with self-worth, actress and model Amber Heard stressed that woman’s value should not come from the standards other people put on her or what she feels like she has to do to “fit in,” but who she is as an individual, underneath it all. She continued, “Look at your fate and your life as not something that you received or have to passively deal with, but rather, what opportunity you’re given to do something with it.”
– With information from The Hollywood Reporter.
