In this media-obsessed world that we live in, girls find it extremely hard to genuinely love themselves.
It's not hard to fathom this when everywhere you look, whether it be billboards, magazines, or ads on social media, there’s always a beautiful, size 0 model with clear skin being shoved in their face.
When you thought society's beauty standards couldn't get anymore baffling, in recent news, the Wish App had size 0 models get inside plus size stockings and stretch them out, to show “how plus sized they really are.”
This is not a world where I want to live, nor one that I want to raise my future daughters in. A world that leaves you ashamed and crying in front of the mirror if you are bigger than a size 4, a world where we are so accustomed to acting in a way that society deems "beautiful" that we forget who we truly are.
That’s why I finally said f*ck you to society's beauty standards.
Instead of being "just a pretty face," I want to be so complicated that it takes someone years to figure me out. I want to be so spontaneous and full of a fire that no one is able to extinguish. I deserve the world because I am intelligent, I am brave, and I have one of the biggest hearts you will ever find - which may sometimes be a downfall.
Some days I wake up looking like a gremlin and I don't bother putting makeup on, while other days I face the day looking like a supermodel. Some days I stand in the mirror for an hour staring at all my "flaws," while other days I dance around the house naked laughing at all my imaginary haters (some of you are probably real, though).
I don't have the perfect, volumized blonde hair that looks good from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. I don't have perfect skin, sometimes my food baby gets so big it adds a few extra pant sizes, and I don’t know how to do my makeup like Jaclyn Hill. Sometimes I even use my hands to shove spaghetti in my mouth when I'm really hangry, and you can probably catch me doing something "un-ladylike" 9 out of 10 times you look at me. Sometimes I'm extremely vulgar, and sometimes I "whisper" sweet-nothings to my boyfriend, not realizing everyone in the room can hear me. I snort when I laugh really hard, and I'm not afraid to text you 200 times if you don't answer in five seconds.
And for this, I don't apologize. This is who I am.
I am unique, I am loved, I am smart, and I am important.
"Just a pretty face" is easy to forget, and as Prabal Gurung once said: "A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but a beautiful woman with a brain is an absolutely lethal combination."
I am one lethal combination, and I am damn sure proud of it.