Ashleigh Murray Opens Up About Learning To Realize Her True Beauty

The “Riverdale” actress wants you to know you can see beauty where you least expected it.

Chances are, if you have even seen a few seconds of Ashleigh Murray on The CW’s “Riverdale,” you know that she is one incredible Josie McCoy. But what you’re about to learn is how much of a huge inspiration she is, because of how real and true her candid words about beauty will sound.

Ashleigh recently shared a gorgeous on-set photo of herself on Instagram, and accompanied the snap with a message about how crazy of a journey it has been to accept and finally see her true beauty. To us, of course, she looks fierce in her character’s signature animal print ensemble. But it has taken Ashleigh herself quite some time to see her radiance.

“‘Beauty is not caused. It is.’ I’m a little in shock. This ‘me’ is not the same girl I remember growing up with,” the actress shared about her photo. “Little Ashleigh wanted be fair or light skinned, have straight hair, light eyes, a sexier frame — anything else because no one ‘beautiful’ was like me: a skinny, brown bundle of curls.”

“It was (and at times still is) the most difficult thing I’ve ever dealt with. I spent so many years on the wrong side of myself,” Ashleigh added. “Things are different now. Through friendship, love and maturity I see past perception, I see myself. I’m not always stunning, my mom still jumps at the sight of me fresh from sleep, but I see it now. I believe my black is beautiful.”

For about five thousand reasons, can be one of the hardest things in the world to look at a photo of yourself and think, “wow, I am beautiful.” In her post, Ashleigh is highlighting just a few reasons why.

Loving your skin tone isn’t easy when the “beautiful people” on TV don’t share your coloring. Loving your hair isn’t easy when you’re taught it needs taming.

Even beyond those points, loving ANYTHING about yourself 100% of the time seems near impossible, since *nobody* wakes up with flawless features every morning.

But as Ashleigh shows with her words, it’s important not to get caught up in the ways others are beautiful when it comes to accepting — and celebrating! — yourself. True beauty (and its realization) shines first from within.