On Becoming the Most Beautiful Version of Myself, Inside and Out

There was a time I wanted to be beautiful so I could be loved.

I thought if I could just be thinner, clearer, smoother, brighter—maybe I’d finally be worthy. Maybe someone would see me, choose me, hold me in the ways I dreamed of being held.

But now I know better.

Now I know that beauty is not something I chase.

It’s something I cultivate.

It grows quietly inside me—where no one can touch it, where no one can take it away.

And this time, I’m not becoming radiant for anyone else’s gaze.

I’m doing it for me.

This Is Not About Perfection

This is not a glow-up story written for Instagram.

It’s not a routine designed to prove my worth to the world.

It’s not about becoming “that girl.”

It’s about feeling soft in my own skin.

Looking in the mirror and seeing someone I respect, someone I tend to with care and devotion.

It’s about returning to the body that carried me through pain, feeling of unworthiness and healing—

and finally saying, thank you.

It’s about eating to nourish, not punish.

Moving to feel joy, not to shrink.

Choosing clothes, makeup, skincare, and maybe even procedures—not from insecurity,

but from a deep desire to honor the woman I’ve become.

Because she’s been through so much.

And she deserves to feel beautiful, too.

Inside Out Beauty Is My Offering to Myself

This next chapter is for her—the version of me who once looked at other women and wondered, why not me?

It’s for the girl who wanted to disappear.

And the woman who decided instead to become visible—first to herself, and then to the world.

Inside Out Beauty isn’t a checklist.

It’s a devotion.

A sacred practice.

A ritual of loving myself every day, in every way.

It’s how I light the candle in my heart and let it glow through my skin, my breath, my presence.

Beauty, to Me, Is Sacred

It is not surface—it is soul.

It is not trend—it is truth.

It is not vanity—it is reverence.

And I want to live my life in a way that honors the divine in me—

through the way I speak to myself,

the way I care for my skin,

the way I feed my body,

the way I soften, shine, and show up.

Not because I need to be chosen.

But because I already chose myself.

Radiantly,

Seraphine Duong

This is where the next chapter begins.

With oil on my skin.

With herbs in my tea.

With quiet mornings, deep breaths, body gratitude, beauty blooming from the inside out.

With softness. With strength. With intention.

For the first time in my life—

I want to be beautiful not so I can be loved…

But because I already am.