Dear Diary, picture it.

You're prom dress shopping and the dresses are looking beautiful on every girl except you. You can't seem to find that dress with the 'It' factor and your mom tells you that you guys can come back next week and try again. But honestly, you're tired of 'trying again', you're tired of not being pretty enough, you're tired of not loving yourself in your own skin.

I was 17 when I realized that appearing as if I've been dipped in chocolate was the most magical thing ever. The sun kissed my skin more than most, I constantly smell like coconut and honey, and I've been toasted with beauty. I finally felt beautiful.

When you're happy, you can wear the colorful things you hid in the back of your closet. That exotic hairstyle that you saw on Pinterest, yeah.. you can try that. Worried about being the only black girl at the event, sis go just because you can. Brown girls like us turn heads because we're breathtaking, not because we're different. I was tired of just being a face, I wanted to be a force. So everywhere I went, my head was held high and my smile outshined the sun. I cannot express to you how many times I sat and stared as others expressed their love for themselves by touching up their makeup or asking if their hair looks okay.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting in a corner regretting that I wore a color other than black, white, or grey. With my newfound confidence, I understood that I may not be the prettiest in the building, but I refused to make myself feel like the ugliest.

So Dear Diary, prom came and went and guess what color your girl wore? Red. Why? Because it's bold, it's fierce, and just like me, it's beautiful.