Do you feel that you’d only be beautiful if you had the smoothest skin, the slimmest body and the most perfect hair? Do you spend time and money trying to make yourself more acceptable to other people? Trying hard to make sure they approve? And after all that, do you still wonder whether they like you? In “Try,” a love song to ourselves, whoever we are, Colbie Caillat shows us that we are all, always, beautiful. She asks “Why should you care what they think of you? When you’re by yourself, do you like you?” Caillet was inspired to write the song when she found her own pictures being photoshopped and feeling the pressure to conform to unreal versions of beauty. So, in this song, Caillet shows there is no such thing as a single version of beauty. With images of very different women of all ages, sizes and colour, each of whom remove their make up as the video goes on, we see beauty in all its natural glory. Each of the women glows. Their beauty cannot be denied, whether they have tattoos, wrinkles or a bald head. They exude a quiet presence that is deeply moving. “You don’t have to try” to belong, Caillat reminds us. “You don’t have to change a single thing. Take your make up off.” Now, we can see the real, truly beautiful person you are. “Don’t you like you?” asks Caillat. “‘Cause I like you.”
