Can you take that challenge?

Out of all the details that brides worry about most, how they look is perhaps of tantamount importance. UCLA PhD candidate Kjerstin Gruys has a different take on what it’s like to be an anti-bridezilla: she is swearing off mirrors for a year!

Gruys first thought of this idea while reading The Birth of Venus where a group of nuns decided to swear off any sight of human flesh. Juxtaposed with her stressful wedding planning and “struggling body image”, she felt that the nuns were on to something.

“I picked out my wedding gown before the project started. Looking in the mirror for hours and feeling critical of myself was one of the main motivators,” Gruys explains to YouBeauty. “I want my wedding to be about my partner, Michael, and me, and about our loved ones—not about whether or not I dropped 10 pounds to squeeze into my dress.”

Do you think you can do it? Recent studies reveal that a woman looks into a mirror for an average of 70 times in just a single day! In fact, Body Dysmorphic Disorder is not all uncommon, characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with your looks or any perceived physical defect, as well as a compulsion to constantly stare in a mirror.

At the same time, Renee Engeln-Maddox, a psychology professor at Northwestern University explains how mirrors can be a hindrance to our self-confidence, “What you see in the mirror is what other people see — it’s an outsider’s perspective. When you look in the mirror, you’re increasing your tendency to see yourself as an outsider would.”

For Gruys, swearing off mirrors does not necessarily equate to swearing off vanity. She still wears minimal makeup and describes the challenges of putting on mascara without a mirror.

Gruys is sometimes worried that she may give up before the year is over (Let us not forget that the one day of the “one year without mirrors” is her actual wedding day). While the challenge on her big day will be difficult, she comforts herself, “I’m also reminding myself that those minutes in front of a mirror are minutes I could be spending with family like my grandparents.”

To share her interesting experiences, Gruys started a blog: Mirror, Mirror Off The Wall.

Good luck Kjerstin! Pretty soon, you’ll be taken aback whenever you see a reflection of your gorgeous self!