Thea Marr is on a mission to help women of all ages realize their God-given beauty. The mother of five has been modeling since she was 14, and if anyone knows the depth of our culture’s confusion surrounding beauty, it’s her.
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In a recent interview with Faithwire, Marr described a pivotal moment that came after the sudden death of her sister, who after years of battling drug addiction, took her own life.
“When my sister passed and I read her last thoughts, it just absolutely destroyed me,” Marr told Faithwire. “And I couldn’t do anything to fix that at the time, but I thought, ‘I am going to tell every woman I can get in front of that they’re beautiful.’”
In a Facebook live video titled “Why do I care if you feel beautiful?” Marr discussed how a journal her sister left behind offered a heartbreaking glimpse into the mind of someone who didn’t understand or believe in her inherent, God-given beauty.
“If I can help one person with one idea, one tip, and if I can encourage you, today, not to believe the lies. You are beautiful,” she says in the video.
Though Marr has always had a heart for women, it wasn’t until after she became a Christian as an adult that she began to view her passion as a deeper calling. She explained that far from being a superficial concern that women shouldn’t dwell on, the desire to feel physically beautiful reveals something crucial about the way God designed us.
“When you look beautiful on the outside, you feel so much more beautiful and accomplished and able to take on the day,” she said. “It’s amazing when you feel like you look good on the outside, what it does on the inside.”
Marr, who has become somewhat of a makeup guru after years of modeling for QVC and other companies, recently took her skills to a local retirement home. The response she received from the women — many of them in their 80s and 90s — was overwhelming, and it only served to confirm her belief that beauty can be used to bless others.
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Last month, Marr began hosting “Beauty at Any Age” classes, where she uses her expertise to help real women look and feel their best. The idea for hosting classes emerged from a need — Marr had women from her community coming to her regularly for advice on makeup, fashion and health.
Eventually, the demand for these private consultations became so great that she decided to host a class for a few women at a time in her home. Women will message her ahead of time about what they’d like to learn and what their personal beauty concerns are. While the women enjoy wine and fellowship, Marr does their makeup and shares tips.
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As a mother, Marr stresses the importance of educating girls about true beauty from an early age. Just recently, she took her daughter, 11, to a tea room for a mother-daughter date and used the opportunity to teach her an important lesson.
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She brought three types of cups — a disposable plastic cup, an ordinary coffee mug and a china tea cup. She explained to her daughter that God views all of His creations as “special tea cups” — unique, beautiful and precious— and that is how we should view and treat others, including ourselves.
Marr has learned a great deal about the challenges facing young women today through her experience of leading a small group for teen girls at her church.
“I work with a lot of teenagers, and the things that they hear, the things that are told to them about their bodies — it’s pretty heartbreaking,” she said.
A major recurring issue she has observed with girls who have a negative view of their self-worth is a lack of “love and attention and affection from their fathers which they so desperately need.”
As the mother of three boys, Marr has learned first-hand that these girls will do anything to get the male attention and affection they crave.
“I now have a 16-year-old son, and I take his phone and see what girls are sending him — unsolicited — and it’s heartbreaking,” she said. “Fathers need to get back into their daughters’ lives and invest in them. They will find the attention they’re seeking, whether it’s good or bad.”
In the age of social media, where everything is filtered and curated, Marr has taken on the difficult task of convincing these teens that their true worth lies beyond the likes, shares and comments.
“Just one girl at a time, I’m trying to change their mindset of what beauty is and how they should view it,” she said.