The other day I overheard a conversation between two high school-age girls that completely shocked and upset me.

I assume they were scrolling through their Instagram feed when a picture of another girl came up. The one girl showed it to her friend and said, "I cannot believe how pretty she is. Her body is so perfect... She's showing off in this picture; I'm not 'liking' it." After her friend agreed with her, and said she would not "like" the picture either, I sat there with my mouth dropped open. Why would you say this about someone? Why would you go to that length to show your jealousy toward her? Why are women so against empowering other women?

After thinking about it for a few minutes, and wishing I had the guts to go up to those girls and tell them what they are saying is wrong, I realized how little female-to-female empowerment is talked about. It is one of those things that most people don't even notice they are doing, let alone notice how bad it is for the female stereotype. If every woman acted in this way, and as if life is not hard enough in itself every day, we would all be fighting this massive competition battle.

So what if a girl you know has a great body? Maybe she was blessed genetically, or maybe she works incredibly hard every day to maintain that physique. But why should we put her down for that? The body you live in is purely yours, and you cannot change that fact. If a simple picture of someone showing their unique features bothers you to the point where you become jealous and mean, you are not doing what is vital to humanity: empowering everyone to keep going, to keep fighting, and that they are doing just fine with where they are.

The author of my favorite self-help book, Jamie Tworkowski said, "This life -- it's not a contest, not a race, not a performance, not a thing that you win." When more people realize this, and accept it as truth, then we will know how important it is to empower one another. If I see someone working really hard at my gym, I take a second to let them know that I see how much effort they are putting in, and therefore everyone else sees it too. Most people will neglect to say anything, but all it takes is a minute of your time to let someone know they are doing great. On the other hand, if those girls acted out what they did about the Instagram post to someone's face, they would be saying "You look great, and it makes me feel jealous and insecure about myself, so I don't like you." How barbaric is that? How does that get you going anywhere positive in your life?

Take a step back. Realize life is not a competition. It cannot be won by a certain number of "likes" on a picture. You cannot move positively and radiantly through life with jealousy and hate. Embrace your unique beauty, and empower everyone else's.