I remember the world before Instagram...

So, maybe it's only been a few years, but it's truly taken over our everyday lives. I feel as if it's been another lifetime since before Instagram was created and honestly, I think I miss it.

Growing up, I had always been a pretty confident kid. I somehow sneaked through high school without having those painfully insecure years. Sure, I had to deal with life’s unpleasantries, but we all go through something. I think, actually, I know that the reason for this is because of my parents, who did an amazing job at raising me if I do say so myself. Whenever it seemed that I was questioning myself or my confidence had been affected by something insignificant, they were always there to fix the pieces. They were my net of reassurance.

In today's world, one way that people search for reassurance is through Instagram. Whether its a new hair cut or a vacation in Europe, we search for any and every way to get a boost of confidence; we want to be "liked". Whenever I’m with a group of my friends the morning after a night out, you can find the majority of the brunch table editing and filtering their next upload consisting of two girls fake-laughing in front of a brick wall. I’ll be the first admit it: I am utterly guilty of this too. We focus more on how our life appears to our followers, rather than how it actually feels. We all put our best foot forward, to compare to another person’s foot, and then we forget that, in the end, these are feet we're talking about. We compare our lives to those of strangers we somehow discovered on the Internet.

We edit out our flaws and inadequacies, but for whom/what? Our ex? That girl we hate from high school? People we don’t like or care for? If you step back and look at the bigger picture, it doesn’t quite make sense. One of the best pieces of advice that I have ever received is that you can only be hurt in places where you’re already insecure. Do you think a tall guy cares if someone calls him short? We want people to think we’re perfect, but in reality, we’re all a little broken.

Beauty standards have been set by the most popular girls on Instagram, who post nearly naked pictures to rack in the likes. We're the ones feeding the hyper-sexualized culture that we claim to hate so much. Is this really how we want young girls to think: that this is how one becomes successful? I hope that girls across the nation watched the U.S. Women’s World Cup Championship last week and felt inspired by that, not when they were scrolling through their Instagram feed. When you post a nearly half-naked picture and someone "likes" it, you are nearly flat-out objectifying yourself. I see so many of my friends feel hurt when they catch their boyfriend liking another girls’ picture on Instagram. I think the best advice I could come up with is that remarkable men want remarkable women and vice versa. Do you think George Clooney found Amal Alamuddin posing nude on the popular page?

In our appearance-obsessed society, it is so easy to be beautiful on the outside these days with cosmetics, editing apps, plastic surgery, etc., but what do I find beautiful? Beauty that radiates from within. The truth behind Instagram filters is that, ultimately, they only hide. They can’t bring light to who you truly are on the inside.

“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 looks lovely.”- Roald Dahl

Have you ever met someone who was so unbelievably gorgeous, yet it was completely masked by a rude and stuck up personality. In contrast, have you ever met someone who was so gracious and brilliant that it made them beautiful in a way that our society can’t seem to accept as true beauty? All the plastic surgery, filters, and concealer in the world cannot mask an ugly personality.

“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful. And being generous. Everything else is crap. I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful, and be generous.” - Ashton Kutcher

The catch with this type of beauty is that it can't be bought. You either have it or you don’t. You have the choice in life to be happy, which believe it or not, is very contagious. At the end of the day, a strong character will last forever, while a strong online presence will fade. An appealing Instagram account may get you millions of followers, but my guess is that it's overrated anyway.