Nomakeupselfie: stop telling people their way of donating to charity is wrong

Polly Calvert tells us why the people slamming the #nomakeupselfie campaign as ‘narcissistic’ and ‘pointless’ need to get off their high horses and join us in the real world


Over the last week a new viral sensation has taken over social media: instead of nominating people to do battle with their livers, it is a ‘who can look best with no makeup’ competition. Or so some small minded critics would have you believe. Of course it’s to raise awareness and to encourage people to donate en masse to Cancer Research. How selfish and attention-seeking I hear you cry!

Since the craze took hold, nearly everyone on your news feed has probably either taken a photo or made some scathing comment about all the useful ways you could donate to Cancer Research instead. Excuse my ignorance, but I wasn’t aware money raised from a charity bake sale, or in doing the Race for Life, was subject to a different currency valuation.

Because plain text receipts all look the same

Clearly taking a photo of yourself with bed head and an inconveniently timed breakout is not going to cure cancer, as the geniuses all over the internet are all too keen to point out – thanks guys. However, it is something that demands attention and raises the profile of this disease extremely quickly. The calls for people to ‘stop wasting time taking your makeup off and go do something useful for cancer’ are completely missing the point.

All efforts for Cancer Research are admirable, but the makeup-less beauty of this campaign IS how little effort it actually requires. The reality is not everyone has the time (or the inclination) to run 10K this summer, organise a charity concert or auction off their underwear (kudos to anyone who hit double figures with that one). Here anyone with access to a computer and a camera can spread the word, get more people texting BEAT to 70099 and donating £3, or even more online.

When we said you should go flat out for charity…

 My family, like countless others, has been touched by cancer. In fact, bulldozed may be a more appropriate word. It is therefore saddening to see so many people take to their Facebook and Twitter accounts to discourage a campaign specifically designed to prevent it from destroying yet more lives. They say it ‘trivialises’ this devastating disease, but by that logic Comic Relief is all of us getting together for a good laugh at those in poverty.My friends and I ran the Race for Life with our bras on the outside of our t-shirts alongside a throng of what looked like Mr Blobby’s long-lost relatives.

From the outside this perhaps merits far more accusations of silliness and not taking cancer seriously, but you need only look at the names written on everyone’s backs to know that this is simply not the case. In regard to selfies, there may not be a label or story of family members accompanying each one, but it should be obvious that this doesn’t constitute people making light of it.

Wardrobe malfunction sees runners accused of trivialising cancer!

Perhaps even more infuriating are the comments being made by those people who not only slam the campaign as narcissistic but attack the amount being donated by text as a ‘measly’ £3. How dare you. Unless you were in the midst of donating £8 million (the amount raised by the campaign in just 6 days) to Cancer Research when the selfies popped up on your news feed, I suggest you pipe down. The proof is in the numbers, and with 10 new clinical trials made possible due to the funds we should be praising the genius who came up with the idea instead of looking for things to criticise.

Yes, I’m sure some people only did it so as not to be left out and, horror of horrors, may have received some flattering comments on their picture. But they still donated so it’s proved to be a packed bandwagon bearing gold for the charity, and indeed for several organisations fighting other issues.

Surely this is all that matters? Are we really going to begrudge those who donated the little ego-boost they got when someone said they looked pretty without mascara?

There is no dress code when it comes to charity. Just ask this guy.

If tapping into the human desire to feel a part of something, and to feel good about helping a worthy cause, is what truly made this campaign so successful, then it would seem a little ‘narcissism’ is exactly what the doctor ordered.

I don’t wish to imply that in not sharing your own photo you are in some way unsupportive of the fight against cancer. I’m no fan of selfies under normal circumstances and understandably it’s not something that appeals to everyone – we all have friends who dive behind sofas at the sight of a camera, makeup or not. I’m sure many of you, instead, will indeed run the Race for Life, hold a car boot sale, a talent contest or don that lurid pink morph suit you’ve been hiding in the back of your wardrobe. Others will take a selfie and donate £3 by text, so why don’t we stop with the unnecessary, misplaced judgement and marvel at how many people are willing to do some good.

Some transformations were more dramatic than others…

There is nothing to be gained from insulting and discouraging people from taking part – your self-righteousness is hypocritical and creates a snowball effect potentially losing the charity large amounts of support and money, more money than you’d most likely be willing to donate yourselves.

So keep taking those selfies, writing statuses, texting BEAT and donating, because you could be the reason someone checks themselves for breast cancer and catches it early. Your ‘measly’ £3 could be what allows charities like Cancer Research to get one step closer to curing this monster of a disease.