For years, I was the quiet woman. When I spoke in meetings, people looked past me, not into my eyes. On the street, I melted into the crowd. In photos, I always seemed to be squinting, because my lashes were so thin and sparse that my eyes simply disappeared.
I heard the sentence “She’s pretty, but kind of plain” so many times that I eventually started to believe it.
Then one day, I saw a video on Instagram. A woman was putting on magnetic lashes. Five seconds. One little “click.” And her eyes… it was as if someone had turned on the lights.
“It’s exaggerated,” I told myself. But a tiny voice inside whispered, “What if it isn’t?”
I placed the order. My hands were shaking when I opened the box. First try: I dropped them. Second try: they stuck to the floor. Third try… I heard that magical “click.” I looked in the mirror and my breath caught in my throat.
My eyes looked bigger. My lashes were so long and curled that my gaze was literally shouting, “I’m here!” For the first time in my life, my eyes were speaking.
That same week, I raised my hand in a meeting, something I had never done before. When the presentation ended, my boss said, “Your eyes were speaking differently today; it was incredibly powerful.” A male friend texted me: “Saw your photo… your eyes are something else now.” My mom called and asked, “Honey, even your voice sounds different. What happened to you?”
Nothing happened, Mom. I just stepped out of the place I’d been hiding for years. My eyes don’t stay silent anymore. My gaze no longer says “sorry for existing”; it says “see me.”
Magnetic lashes aren’t just a makeup product. They’re the tiny magnet that finally let the voice I’d been suppressing for years come out. Now, in meetings, on the street, in photos, in life… With my eyes, I’m saying, “I’m here.”
And believe me, the world is listening.