As any typical college girl, there are times that I walk down the sidewalk and feel like I’ve stepped onto a runway. When did every get so pretty? When did everyone start dressing up for an 8 a.m. class? When did girls start contouring their face on Mondays? It seems myself and most girls I know are more concerned about the way we look at school than the grades we make. I can’t count the amount of time I’ll spend straightening my hair over studying. I am ashamed to admit the amount of times I haven’t left my room to go to the library or skip an event, because I was having a bad hair day, or I felt like I looked fat. I dress not for practicality, but for what the girls I don’t know walking down the sidewalk think about me. I go to the gym, not for my own health, but to look more like the girls I see at the gym all the time. I finish doing my makeup to just get frustrated and start all over.

I was never told that after college the insecurity would continue. I assumed after my awkward middle school days I would eventually grow into my looks in high school. But what was once desirable when I was in high school isn’t desirable anymore. The problem with trying to have certain look whether is the small waist and big butt, full lips, overly tan skin, the problem is that all of these are just trends. Tomorrow will come new trends that we can’t keep up with. When I was in middle school thin narrow eyebrows were the must-have look for all the girls I saw as beautiful. Thanks to my years of keeping my eyebrows thin I struggle to keep up with the demands of the full eyebrows trending today. I’m not saying that you should never pluck your eyebrows or go to the gym. But if you do these things do it for the right reasons! Don’t skip meals because you got tagged in a photo that made you look fat! Don’t spend $150 on a tanning membership in an attempt to get a more exotic/Kardashian-like skin tone! Don’t straighten your hair every day because you don’t think your curls make you look attractive. I’m speaking from experience, none of these things will make you feel beautiful.

It took me almost 20 years to realize that each of those girls that I walk past on the sidewalk, are insecure about their beauty, wake up and think of the same things I do. If we each realized that we all try too hard to look like someone else and not ourselves maybe, we would stop trying so hard. We think that women like Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, and Beyonce are gorgeous. Yet forget to realize each one of these women look very different from one another. They own their look and their confidence makes others want to be like them as well. If we just embrace our imperfections maybe it will cause others to embrace theirs.

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 The Lord said, ”He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” The Lord literally says just as we can’t fathom eternity, we cannot fathom how beautiful we are in His eyes. The One who made us has promised us that He sees us as beautiful, yet we wish for someone else’s beauty. The Lord gave us each the outward and inward beauty that we have for a purpose bigger than we realize. You don’t know how your imperfection will help you relate to someone else. You also don’t know who will love the features special to you.

I know each day is a struggle to feel confident. Trust me, I battle with my self-confidence greatly! But understand that you are not alone. There are millions of girls just like you wondering why you weren’t born with the perfect figure and the most symmetrical features. But don’t forget to take compliments like “I love your outfit!,” “Your hair is so pretty!,” or “You’re beautiful!” because they mean those things when they say it. Accept the complement with grace and return the nice gesture by complimenting someone else. You have no idea how much a simple compliment can boost someone’s confidence. You have the power to feel beautiful and make others feel the same! Just remember that you’re not as beautiful as Beyonce. You are as beautiful as you, and that a beautiful thing!