Sarah Lee, a married mom of four, is taking it off — all her makeup, that is.
“Going makeup-free is so freeing,” Lee, 51, told The Post. “I have more interesting and important things to contribute to the world other than just my physical appearance.”
And Lee of Sacramento, Calif., isn’t in a rush to reapply her blush.
The grandma of two tikes under age 5, alongside other moms and role models — from everyday women to “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot and “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson — is forging the excessive use of foundations, glosses and social media filters for the long term.
And for the sake of young girls everywhere.
‘Know her worth’
It’s a gallant, anti-glitzy effort toward teaching tots and teens to embrace their God-given looks, rather than succumb to the modern-day pressures of looking picture-perfect.
Holly Jessica, a mom of two, calls it the “Get Un-Ready With Me” movement.
The “un-ready” crusade rises as the antithesis of the viral “Get Ready With Me” or “#GRWM” challenge — those cutesy vids from adults and children alike that take audiences on a multistep journey through a content creator’s primping process.
“I believe it’s OK to want to feel good and put on makeup,” Jessica, a fit influencer from Australia, told The Post. “But I don’t believe we need it every day.”
Without shame, she’s ripped off the fake eyelashes and wiped away the faux glow for all of TikTok to see, hoping to inspire her tween-ager, Koko, to “love herself the way she is and know her worth.”
An ‘antidote’
The call for natural beauty is getting louder. The mother-led swing away from makeup comes on the heels of the “Sephora girls” craze, which saw little ladies under age 13 flocking to beauty shops and cosmetic counters for primping products and anti-aging creams.
While every day is no makeup for some, others are simply forsaking foundation in unity for a day. Every April 26, National No Makeup Day celebrates bare-faced beauty and invites glamor gals to go without preening products for at least 24 hours.
But the “Get Un-Ready With Me” campaign, aimed at de-influencing impressionable spectators from packing on the face paint, is not to deter youngsters from gussying up every now and then.
Instead, the makeup-free trend is meant to help counteract the mental health crisis spurring among Gen Zers and Gen Alphas — girls and boys under age 18. It’s a plague that’s triggered an increase in teen body-image issues, low self-esteem, anxiety and social comparison thanks to the smoke and mirrors of the worldwide web, per recent research.
Yamalis Diaz, a child and adolescent psychologist with NYU Langone Health, says initiatives like the “un-ready” mission can serve as a worthwhile “antidote” to the ills of the influential internet.
“Young people are experiencing the psychological damages due to the unrealistic beauty standards they’re seeing online,” Diaz told The Post.
Diaz said stars who opt for fresh-faced looks on the red carpet and regular moms alike are making a big impact, too.
“Parents, and even celebrities like Alicia Keys and Pamela Anderson, who are making an effort to course correct and recalibrate some of the messaging about natural beauty and aging, can help kids better understand that most of what they’re seeing [on social media] isn’t real.”
It’s a lesson Gadot, 39, wants her brood of four daughters, who range in age from 13 years old to 12 months, to learn.
“[My kids are growing] up with all these filters. With curated postings. They think it’s real, not knowing that it’s been totally filtered and retouched,” the “Snow White” villainess recently told DuJour Magazine. “I tell them, ‘Whatever you see out there, it’s false, not true.’ It’s a very confusing world for a girl.”
Fancy, not pretty
Anna Karp, a mom of one and dermatologist in Tribeca, told The Post she teaches her 6-year-old, Lily, that applying mascaras, shadows and goops can make you look “fancy” — but they’re not what makes you “pretty.”
“I tell my daughter and my patients that it’s more important to have healthy skin than it is to cover it with makeup,” said Karp, a clinical assistant professor at NYU. She recently ditched her daily doll-up routine to, instead, rock an untouched mug on a regular basis.
“I just wear my sunscreen and feel very confident in my own skin,” added the doc, 39. “I want the message to be: We’re pretty naturally.”
For Chelsea Hollenbeck, challenging herself to go au naturel for 40 days at the top of 2025 wasn’t just to promote self-love and acceptance to her three little nieces.
It was an act of self-liberation.
“I feel so much more confident about my face”, said Hollenbeck, 31, a minimalist stylist from the Upper East Side. “I’m more focused on skin care and skin health — not how I look or what people think about me.”
“I’m free from the crutch of makeup,” she gushed. “Without that burden, I happily go about my day, stay in my lane and pay my rent.”
