Actress Jenn Gotzon tackles Hollywood lies about beauty and value: There’s healing in Jesus
Actress Jenn Gotzon is fighting against lies perpetrated by Hollywood and mainstream entertainment that tell women their value and worth are determined by their looks.
The outspoken Christian entertainer worked alongside co-authors Morgan Threadgill and Lynnette Simm to release Beauty & Likes: Experiencing God’s Truth about Your Looks. The trio had teenage girls in mind when they wrote the book and hope the work will encourage adolescents to find their value in what God says about them instead of what secular pop culture says they must aspire to emulate.
“When I was a teen, I wanted to be liked, so I strived to do my hair and makeup like famous actresses and would look at magazines thinking if I looked like them, then I’d be invited to parties by those girls who I so wanted to be accepted by,” Gotzon told The Christian Post.
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“Instead, several [of the girls] would make vulgar comments to me every day as I entered my homeroom class.”
That secular standard of beauty, followed by rejection and criticism, stuck with Gotzon into adulthood and affected how she saw herself in her relationships.
“I went through a divorce and all that pain echoed into me thinking my ex didn’t like me because I wasn’t thin and pretty enough,” she revealed.
New research on breakbingeeating.com shows that around 50% of 13-year-old American girls reported being unhappy with their image. By the time those girls reached 17, the percentage grew to nearly 80%.
Beauty & Likes was brought to life from the inscriptions found on Gotzon’s Beauty Bracelet, a Tiffany-inspired style bracelet delivering the message that humans are a masterpiece made by God rather than what's predominately promoted on TV and in popular entertainment. The bracelet is from Gotzon's successful Christmas movie “The Farmer and The Belle: Saving Santaland,” in which she stars.
The actress lamented that she wasn't able to get past her own views about beauty until she immersed herself in God’s truth. Gotzon read the Bible and then integrated “visualizing emotionally rooted exercises” that she learned in acting classes helped enew her thoughts about herself and her beauty.
“During this healing time ... I brought every painful memory I could remember to Jesus, and praised God, she said. “After several months of focused prayer time, I truly have found freedom and healing.”
“It’s kind of funny, I went the complete other direction where now I don’t care what I look like and just focus on having a kind and joyous heart using the gifts God has given me to pour into those however I can,” the performer maintained.
Part one of “The Farmer and The Belle” was inspired by Gotzon’s true story that illustrates the beauty of embracing one’s identity in God and how that leads to the true pathway to love. The second installment is currently in the works.
Now remarried with two young children in tow, Gotzon wants her book to help young people get “complete revelation and freedom from all the ridiculous pressures social media, culture and peers” put on them.
The book also follows the newly released documentary “What is True Beauty?” produced by Reuben Evans, Jim E. Chandler, who also produced "The Farmer and The Belle," and Jenn Gotzon with contributions by Issac Hernandez.
Narrated by Gotzon, the documentary features the actress praying with intercession over the viewers as she walks through each message in the book. She also uses her acting skills to help people find freedom in Jesus by instructing viewers to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, as is found in the book Romans.
For more information about the books, films and other products, click here. Readers of The Christian Post get a discount by using discount code JENNGOTZON at checkout.
Jeannie Ortega Law is a reporter for The Christian Post. Reach her at: [email protected] She's also the author of the book, What Is Happening to Me? How to Defeat Your Unseen Enemy Follow her on Twitter: @jlawcp Facebook: JeannieOMusic
