Every year, on the day before Valentine’s Day, a holiday is observed that emphasizes the importance of self-love and self-affirmation. This holiday is called International Natural Day, and it’s a holiday that emphasizes that people shouldn’t be forced to conform to society’s standards of beauty.

This February 13th holiday is also sometimes known as the International Day of Self Love, and that should give a clue to everyone thinking about celebrating it and how they can go about celebrating it. All a person has to do is accept themselves for who they are. This means that they should even accept the things that they consider to be flawed.

The History of International Natural Day

This holiday was created by Sanah Jivani, the CEO of the Love Your Natural Self Foundation. She created the holiday in 2011 after she suffered through a dramatic life event. She woke up one morning with her hair falling out and soon discovered that she had Alopecia Universalis.

As she lost her hair, she felt like she was losing her self-esteem as well—which only accelerated when she began to be bullied by the students in her seventh-grade class. She soon realized that something had to give, so she began to redefine her notion of what made her beautiful. This holiday was created to reinforce that fact, and it’s been observed ever since.

Observing International Natural Day

This is a day for everyone to show themselves some love. This can be done by taking a mental health day and just spending time with close friends and/or family members, by going makeup-free on this day, or wearing clothes that they wouldn’t ordinarily wear.

We encourage everyone to spread the word about this holiday of self-love and affirmation by using the hashtag #InternationalNaturalDay on social media.