Tell Me Something Beautiful is a collection of poetry, music and art in all its forms. The name is a response to Paloma Faith’s song, “Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?” While the song is about Paloma’s desire to be loved for who she is and not for someone she pretends to be, I took this single line to mean something entirely different. What do we want?

Do we want the truth, or something beautiful?

Many popular songs reflect the sentiment that sometimes, being told something beautiful is better than being told the truth. No Doubt’s single “Don’t Speak” expresses a desire to be kept from the truth, because, well, the truth hurts. Fleetwood Mac’s hit, “Little Lies” features the lines, “Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.” This is not to say that life would be better if we were all blissfully unaware of the truth. The truth can be beautiful – it just depends on your perspective.

The reality is that there are moments in life that are extraordinarily beautiful, whether we notice them or not. It isn’t so much ignoring the truth that allows us to see the beauty inherent in life. When we extract and zoom in on the bits and pieces of our experiences that stop us in our tracks, life takes on the shape of art. These moments flicker and fade as quickly as they come, and we hardly notice as they happen. Art encapsulates these small moments, immortalizing them to be felt in their purest form at any point in the future.

Tell Me Something Beautiful is an attempt to capture these bits and pieces of beauty, and inject them into your everyday.

The Writer: Michelle Hu is a writer currently living in Brooklyn. She has lived in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle, and New York City.