Milan Zrnic / RCA

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Christina Aguilera Celebrates ‘Beautiful’ 20-Year Anniversary With New Version of Her Video

by Glitter Staff posted on October 26, 2022
Milan Zrnic / RCA

Christina Aguilera spreads mental health awareness as she celebrated the 20-year anniversary of her hit song, “Beautiful.”

Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Christina Aguilera has released an updated version of her world-famous song “Beautiful,” which initially came out in 2002. This new video tackles the complex subject of negative messages through social media and its effects on body image and mental health.

Aguilera released the news on social media, tweeting, “In celebration of the 20-year anniversary of Stripped and World Mental Health Day, I’m honored to share a new music for Beautiful, coming October 19th. Tune out and turn in. Take your space, log off, and put your mind, body, and soul first.”

Christina explained in a tweet that her original music video for “Beautiful” was made to “bring awareness and a sense of compassion in the face of criticism.” It brings to light an important message of remembering to love ourselves and stay focused on the core values that makes us unique.

Aguilera’s new video tackles prevalent issues that aren’t always talked about. The video depicts young adults battling complex issues like racism, eating disorders, homophobia, body dysmorphia, and getting attacked through negative messages on social media.

The video starts with a group of young girl dancers putting on makeup and using their smartphones as mirrors. It then cuts to a vending machine full of pills and cosmetics, where the kids can decide whether to buy from the machine or not. There is later a scene where a little girl is staring at her wall with a collage of supermodels from different magazines covering it. All of these scenes relate to the message that social media influences our decisions and how we perceive ourselves.

Bodies are depicted with the words “before” and “after” written on their skin. This scene represents how people on social media, especially celebrities, show their body transformations, whether they healthily attained that body or not.

The message is clear from the beginning of the video. Aguilera is bringing awareness that social media pressures young adults to be happy, healthy, beautiful, fit, and skinny. These expectations create an inauthentic idea of how a body should look and what is a “good” body versus a “bad” body.

However, the video comes to a hopeful conclusion as the young dancers remove their makeup and the little girl rips the posters off her wall. We see kids coming together in a field of greenery, singing and dancing together.

The music video ends with a phone in a puddle of blood with a message appearing in white text. “In the last 20 years, since “Stripped” was first released, social media has transformed our relationship with our bodies and, in turn, our mental health. Research suggests that time spent on social networking sites is associated with body image issues, self-harm, and disordered eating in children and teens. This needs to change.” Christina then linked to her website for more information and resources to better her viewer’s mental health.

More and more celebrities are speaking out about the dangers of social media and the need for more mental health awareness and resources. Christina Aguilera really created something beautiful with this new video. You can visit Aguilera’s website for a list of mental health resources and watch the “Beautiful” music video below.

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