The last time I remember having short, shoulder length hair was in 5th grade. That was 8 years ago.

I was the cliche, nerdy Asian girl back in the middle school days of wearing Aeropostale, Hollister, and Abercrombie, and I even had the glasses and braces to complete the look. It was the beginning of the YouTube beauty era in 2011, and as I watched the gorgeous girls who sat behind the screen, I noticed a similarity -- most of them touted beautiful, long hairstyles...

I was envious...

I decided that I too would live a life free of haircuts, only trimming the ends every once in a while to reach the length I so desired. After a couple of years, my waist length tresses became my most complimented feature. During that time, I also ditched the glasses for contacts and got my braces removed. I was a new woman.

High school was an era of meeting new human beings who would shape the way I viewed the world and gaining a level of self-confidence and awareness I never thought I would have.

However, it wasn't because of the hair.

Now, I'm witnessing a new trend. Girls are chopping their hair, rocking short bobs, and challenging the traditional association of long hair with beauty. I absolutely love it. We are in a new age where femininity and a woman's worth cannot be measured simply by the length of her hair.

However, my old personal fears still linger in the back of my mind whenever I try to muster up the courage to undergo the big chop. Yes, try not to care about how the world will view you is hard, but sometimes it's more difficult to stop caring about the way you view yourself. I'm still a work in progress, but I'm slowly but surely making my way to letting go of some unnecessary inches of hair.