# Scars to Your Beautiful
**Scars to Your Beautiful** is a song by the Canadian singer and songwriter [Alessia Cara](https://www.edgepedia.org/alessia-cara), released on November 13, 2015 through [Def Jam Recordings](https://www.edgepedia.org/def-jam-recordings) as the third single from her debut album *Know-It-All*. A synth-pop ballad whose lyrics promote body positivity and self-acceptance, it reached number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the [Canadian Hot 100](https://www.edgepedia.org/canadian-hot-100), and has been certified multi-platinum in several countries, including 6x Platinum in the United States and Eight Times Platinum in Canada.[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025) • [2](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful) • [3](https://musiccanada.com/gold-platinum/?_gp_search=Scars+To+Your+Beautiful+Alessia+Cara)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | November 13, 2015, Def Jam Recordings; third single from *Know-It-All*; serviced to Top 40 radio July 26, 2016[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025) |
| Writers and producers | Alessia Caracciolo, Warren Felder, Coleridge Tillman, Andrew Wansel; produced by Pop & Oak and Sebastian Kole[4](https://www.patricksheasongs.com/blog/2017/1/17/scars-to-your-beautiful-performed-by-alessia-cara) |
| Song profile | 97 BPM, running time 3:50, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure[4](https://www.patricksheasongs.com/blog/2017/1/17/scars-to-your-beautiful-performed-by-alessia-cara) |
| Peak chart positions | No. 8 US Billboard Hot 100; No. 14 Canadian Hot 100; No. 55 UK Official Singles Chart[2](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful) • [5](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful/) |
| US certification | RIAA 6x Platinum, November 13, 2025, recognizing 6,000,000 certified units[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025) |
| Canadian certification | Music Canada Platinum, December 13, 2016; Eight Times Platinum, April 28, 2025[3](https://musiccanada.com/gold-platinum/?_gp_search=Scars+To+Your+Beautiful+Alessia+Cara) |
| Awards | Four MTV Video Music Award nominations, winning Best Fight Against the System; iHeartRadio Music Award for Best Lyrics; iHeartRadio MMVA for Canadian Single of the Year[2](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful) |
## Origin and writing
Cara wrote the song with Sebastian Kole, her writing partner for her whole first album, deliberately taking on self-confidence and body image, a subject she says she struggled with herself and saw her friends and peers struggle with.[6](https://www.glamour.com/story/alessia-cara-5-songs-5-stories) The immediate trigger was a day of writer's block in the studio, when the two watched a marathon of a plastic surgery show on television. Their conversation about why people felt the need to alter their faces led to a discussion of beauty standards and where insecurity comes from and how deep-rooted it is, and Cara decided that day to write the song.[6](https://www.glamour.com/story/alessia-cara-5-songs-5-stories) She has said that of all her songs this is the one she could most stand behind and promote, because she believed its message would keep resonating.[6](https://www.glamour.com/story/alessia-cara-5-songs-5-stories)
Her debut rendition of the track took place at TEDxTeen in 2015, and on July 26, 2016 it was subsequently released to [Top 40](https://www.edgepedia.org/top-40) radio.[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025)
## Lyrics and message
The song is built as an argument. The songwriter and producer Patrick Shea, whose work has appeared in The New York Times and [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker), describes a chorus that states the main idea, that the listener is beautiful just the way she is, with verses that supply supporting points against plastic surgery and against starving oneself, and a bridge that drives the message home from a slightly different angle.[4](https://www.patricksheasongs.com/blog/2017/1/17/scars-to-your-beautiful-performed-by-alessia-cara) One of the chorus's lines, "the world could change its heart," appears in the song's official lyric materials.[7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjKxNsksZQ)
Scholarly readings reach the same theme. A study in the journal *Litera* concluded that the song and its music video redefine beauty so that it is not determined by criteria such as a thin body, white skin, or a flawless appearance, and is not addressed to women only, extending across shapes, sizes, colors, and gender.[8](https://jurnal.uny.ac.id/index.php/litera/article/view/27409) The same study observed that the music video's models are physically diverse in age, gender, background, ethnicity, body size, and skin color, with visible and invisible scars, each representing a kind of beauty.[9](https://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/litera/article/download/27409/pdf/72723) A semantic analysis presented at the Conference on the Future of English Language Education likewise reads the lyrics as communicating self-acceptance, empowerment, and resistance against societal beauty standards through connotative language.[10](https://proceedings.dokicti.org/index.php/cfele/article/view/353)
## Commercial performance
The single became Cara's second top-ten entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 8 after "Here."[2](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful) It reached number 1 at pop, hot adult contemporary, and adult contemporary radio in the United States, and by mid-2017 it was Cara's second multi-platinum single there.[11](https://headlineplanet.com/home/2017/07/05/alessia-caras-scars-beautiful-earns-double-platinum-award-united-states/)
In the United Kingdom the song entered the Official Singles Chart on October 27, 2016 and peaked at number 55 on January 19, 2017, spending 13 weeks in the top 100.[5](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful/) In Italy it entered the FIMI digital chart in week 40 of 2016 at number 83, peaked at number 53, and was certified gold, then platinum, then 2x Platinum.[12](https://www.fimi.it/top-of-the-music/music/?title=Scars+to+Your+Beautiful)
## Certifications
Certified units are sales-plus-streaming figures based on certification alone.
| Region | Certification | Certified units |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) | 6x Platinum (November 13, 2025) | 6,000,000[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025) |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Platinum (December 13, 2016); Eight Times Platinum (April 28, 2025) | listed at 80,000 for the Platinum award[3](https://musiccanada.com/gold-platinum/?_gp_search=Scars+To+Your+Beautiful+Alessia+Cara) |
In the United States, each RIAA certified unit equals one paid download or 150 streams.[11](https://headlineplanet.com/home/2017/07/05/alessia-caras-scars-beautiful-earns-double-platinum-award-united-states/) The recording has surpassed 1.67 billion streams on Spotify.[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025)
## Music video and cultural reach
The music video was directed by Aaron A, who had previously directed Cara's video for "Wild Things," and was released on July 11, 2016.[2](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful) Def Jam paired the single with the "I AM YOU" empowerment campaign of the non-profit I AM THAT GIRL, a peer-to-peer community for girls, with the song's message as the basis of the alliance.[13](https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/i-am-you-d701693f-7932-4089-86b1-1423dadfd751)
The song appeared in the television series *The Bold Type* and *Law & Order* and in the film *A Wrinkle in Time*.[6](https://www.glamour.com/story/alessia-cara-5-songs-5-stories) Cara, a Toronto native, won the [Grammy Award for Best New Artist](https://www.edgepedia.org/grammy-award-for-best-new-artist) in 2018, the year after the song's chart peak.[1](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025)
## References
1. [Alessia Cara Earns RIAA 6x Platinum for "Scars To Your Beautiful", PopFiltr, November 13, 2025](https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful-6x-platinum-november-13-2025)
2. [Scars To Your Beautiful, Alessia Cara Wiki (Fandom)](https://alessia-cara.fandom.com/wiki/Scars_To_Your_Beautiful)
3. [Gold & Platinum, Music Canada certification database](https://musiccanada.com/gold-platinum/?_gp_search=Scars+To+Your+Beautiful+Alessia+Cara)
4. [Patrick Shea, "Scars to Your Beautiful," performed by Alessia Cara (January 17, 2017)](https://www.patricksheasongs.com/blog/2017/1/17/scars-to-your-beautiful-performed-by-alessia-cara)
5. [SCARS TO YOUR BEAUTIFUL, ALESSIA CARA, Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/alessia-cara-scars-to-your-beautiful/)
6. [Alessia Cara Says a Plastic Surgery Show Inspired Her Hit Song 'Scars to Your Beautiful', Glamour, July 15, 2021](https://www.glamour.com/story/alessia-cara-5-songs-5-stories)
7. [Alessia Cara - Scars To Your Beautiful (Lyrics), YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjKxNsksZQ)
8. [Self-Love and Self-Acceptance: Redefining Ideal Beauty Through Its Representation in Scars to Your Beautiful, LITERA](https://jurnal.uny.ac.id/index.php/litera/article/view/27409)
9. [LITERA article PDF](https://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/litera/article/download/27409/pdf/72723)
10. [Exploring Connotation in 'Scars to Your Beautiful' by Alessia Cara: A Semantic Perspective, Proceedings of the Conference on the Future of English Language Education](https://proceedings.dokicti.org/index.php/cfele/article/view/353)
11. [Alessia Cara's "Scars To Your Beautiful" Earns Double Platinum Award In United States, Headline Planet, July 5, 2017](https://headlineplanet.com/home/2017/07/05/alessia-caras-scars-beautiful-earns-double-platinum-award-united-states/)
12. [Scars to Your Beautiful, FIMI Top of the Music](https://www.fimi.it/top-of-the-music/music/?title=Scars+to+Your+Beautiful)
13. [I AM THAT GIRL: I am you, Ads of the World](https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/i-am-you-d701693f-7932-4089-86b1-1423dadfd751)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › Pop songs › Pop songs of the 2010s › Pop songs of the late 2010s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license