I’m tired of waking up every morning not feeling good enough or beautiful enough. I’m tired of doing my hair and putting on my makeup to cover up my flaws. I’m just tired of it. I want to wake up and feel good about the way I look. I want to wake up and feel beautiful when I’m 100% me, in my natural bare face and hair.

I remember when I was younger and so carefree. I didn’t even brush my hair, let alone view my body negatively. I was so happy with myself because I wasn’t comparing my physical looks to other people. I was just me. And I was more than OK with who I was. Now, especially as I am getting older, I find it so hard to accept my flaws and love them. Some days, my skin and acne are bad and it makes me so self-conscious that I don’t want to go out in public (and I won’t without a full face of makeup on). I don’t even like makeup. I hate how it feels on my skin and I hate the whole routine of getting ready. But, I am so self-conscious without wearing it because I use it to cover my flaws and hide them. I’m not saying makeup is bad at all. I think some people have a lot of fun expressing themselves through makeup and others love the way they look with makeup on, and that's all great. I want others to feel beautiful with however they choose to express themselves. What I’m saying is that there is something so wrong with the way I personally use makeup. I buy these products and wear them because I feel like I have to. I feel like I have to cover up who I really am to fit in.

Today, there’s an app for almost everything. And believe it or not, there’s an app that edits out all of your flaws with the touch of a button. You can smooth out your skin, your stretch marks, cellulite; you can make your face and body slimmer, or make your butt and boobs bigger. It makes me so sad to see young girls and women using these kinds of apps before they post photos of themselves. I understand we are all just trying to feel more beautiful and we want to present our best selves to the world. But this is destroying self-confidence and is ultimately doing more harm than good. I’m 100% guilty of using some kind of editing to make myself look better before posting a photo. But, if you feel that you need to edit out every single one of your flaws before you post a photo to social media—don’t. I personally believe that we were all created to look and be the way we are naturally. And we should just love ourselves. If you want to enhance your beauty, better yourself and make yourself feel good, then that's great. Make sure you are doing all of that for the right reasons.

Especially for women, it is so easy to fall into the trap of believing these unrealistic beauty expectations. The media, celebrities and our society as a whole continue to promote these standards that are impossible to achieve. If you aren’t skinny with perfectly clear skin, big lips, no wrinkles, big butt, big boobs, completely hairless at all times, full makeup always, hair glossy and done up, then you don’t fit into what society and the media portrays as beautiful. I want us to all feel beautiful in our own skin and to not feel like we have to continuously change our appearance to feel it. Whether or not you care about these unrealistic beauty expectations, it doesn’t really make a difference. You can tell yourself that these expectations don’t affect you at all, but they can and do affect everyone subconsciously—you might not even be aware of how these ridiculous standards are truly affecting you.

We’re all after the same thing. We all just want to feel beautiful in our own skin. It’s a continuous battle when we are constantly looking at social media and comparing our bodies to others. And I know, it’s one thing for someone to tell you you’re beautiful, but it’s a completely different thing to feel and know you are beautiful. I’ll be 20 in a few months, and I’ll tell you, I am so far from being confident and happy with the way I look. I’ve recently realized how important it is for me to be confident and love myself for who I am naturally without all the extra crap. So I’ve decided to make it a priority to love the way I look and who I am as a person. I’m going to learn to love and accept the acne, stretch marks, extra fat and cellulite and everything else on my body—because I am going to learn to love me. And when the acne clears up or the stretch marks fade, I'm going to continue to love myself. Let’s all work a little harder and promote self-love. Let’s create our own beauty “standards” and forget about what anyone else has to say about it. We have all been taught by the media and society that we aren’t beautiful just the way we are. I’m sick of it—and you should be, too.

“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” —Roald Dahl