You Have to Love You

Today's lesson, kiddos, is about loving yourself.

Society is brutal sometimes, especially when it comes to how you look. Looks are a big deal in this messed up world of ours, and people like to convince you that if you don't look exactly perfect, that makes you fat or ugly or whatever. But you know what? That's all a fat load of crap.

So I'm a 19-year-old girl, and for the most part my self esteem is (more or less) through the roof. I know I'm a pretty neat gal and I can admit that sometimes I look really dang cute. But then sometimes society's weird, skewed standards of "beauty" get to me. Like today, for example, my mom was getting me new jeans and needed to know what size. I'm like a 6 usually, which is just fine, right? But I caught myself wishing I were a few sizes smaller.

That's not cool.

Our standards of beauty shouldn't make someone feel bad for not being a couple sizes smaller than they are. When that happens, you know something is seriously wrong.

It shouldn't matter what other people think, yet for so many of us it does. Society is teaching us we can't love ourselves if we don't look a certain way, which is utter garbage. If you're a size 4, awesome! If you're a size 14, fantastic! It doesn't matter, as long as you love yourself.

When you love yourself, it's so much easier to ignore what other people think. It's easy to see yourself for what you're really worth. It's easy to be confident in yourself no matter what lies the media is trying to tell you. There is no such thing as a perfect body--remember that.

Remember that it's okay to be confident with who you are and how you are :) Remember that it's okay to love yourself (until you cross over into narcissism, at which point it gets a little weird). If you're healthy and happy with your own body, then who cares what anyone else thinks?? People can be mean and judgmental; don't let them get to you.

I know this has been more geared towards girls, but dear boys, this definitely applies to you too. I don't know if you face the same pressure to look a certain way, but either way it doesn't matter one bit.
Everyone is beautiful in their own way and we all deserve to be able to love ourselves :)