Why You Are Beautiful Just the Way You Are

I don’t know about you, but as a girl, I am tired.

Tired of trying to be beautiful.

I was most tired in grade nine, when I was a new girl. I was surrounded by beautiful girls. I felt like I was the DUFF –designated ugly fat friend – with her prettier and more popular pals. Desperately trying to reinvent myself, I tried working out, putting on excess makeup, trying one-minute hacks to grow my hair…but nothing worked.

Then, one day, I couldn’t take it anymore. I confessed to friends.

“Hey, guys. I feel ugly.”
“No, you are not! I love your eyes!”
“I want your freckles; they are so cute!”
“You are pretty, shut up.”

Then, I realized, my friends didn’t see what I saw when they looked at me. My different looking eyes.  My short hair. My relatively large face and freckles. And yet, I realized was exquisitely beautiful.

It may not be the same type of beautiful as a Victoria Secret Angel or high-end fashion model, but I was beautiful. Very beautiful. Compared to these girls, I was nothing more and nothing less than who I was.

When I realized all of this, I made a commitment to live my life with the courage to see and reveal my beauty. I also made a promise to look for and see the beauty in others. Whether it’s the girl sitting next to me in my calculus class or that girl I met at the drinking fountain the other day. I look at them, and I see beauty. No, not the kind of beauty that I saw on the first day of school. It goes way past that. Now, the kind of beauty that I see is beauty in everyone’s heart.

I now look in the mirror and see lots of freckles and the same short hair that want to stay with me. And I am okay with that. When I look in the mirror now, I consciously look for love.

I look to love myself and what I see before me. Sure, sometimes I pinch my cheeks to see if those five pounds are still there or not, but I am learning that I am beautiful in my own way.

And if I can do that, you can, too.

“The only thing wrong with me was that I thought there was something wrong with me,” a statement from the renowned drag queen Courtney Act, reminding you that nothing is wrong with you. Embrace yourself and remember that you are you for a reason.

Today, when you look in the mirror, look carefully to see you. I guarantee that you will see something beautiful. Something unique. Because you are beautiful, just the way you are.