It is 20 years since Christina Aguilera released her haunting song, Beautiful, which highlighted inner beauty, self-esteem and insecurity issues. The song inspired resilience and self-acceptance but the problems have persisted. Perhaps they are more prevalent, or perhaps they are more visible – perhaps both. The need to address them remains strong and urgent. Self-harm and depression are growing and the means to tamper with faces and bodies more accessible. Social media continues to seduce young girls with distorted “ideals” and while there are brands are working to make acceptance and difference stronger than impossible ideas of “perfection”, the scales are still tipped in the wrong direction.     

Smuggler director, Fiona Jane Burgess has taken on the challenge of solving the problem through awareness with her striking new music video for Beautiful. The video focusses on the toxicity of social media and influencer culture on impressionable young people to try to diffuse its power. It aims to sends a message of hope as Christina (and writer-producer Linda Perry) did with the original. It also tells those young people who are struggling that they are not alone and it’s normal to have insecurities.

Burgess calls her video a love letter to young people in 2022 and Aguilera is helping her to promote it.

Fiona Jane Burgess ‘s video was produced by Smuggler and edited by Jo Lewandowska at Okay Studio.