Hey Ladies,

So real quick, raise your hand if you woke up today and thought, what am I going to wear today? Where do I even start with this hair? Was that meeting today at 2 p.m. or tomorrow at 2 p.m.? Did I finish what I was supposed to? And then if you're anything like me, I usually sigh and grunt (dramatically) and then slouch back down under my covers because that's where we hide from "adulting." Pssh, "adulting." There's something to cover in Algebra II! I just don't understand how we don't have a female version of how to become an adult written and published yet?! Maybe I'll start on that once I'm finished with this.

I remember like nine out of 10 times a week my freshman year of high school complaining about how I just couldn't "wait to be an adult, on my own, in college, and away from my parents." Well, to the 14-year-old me, here's three words: You are stupid. Everything's expensive, people are mean, and the real world doesn't care if you want to finish that episode of "Grey's Anatomy." It's awful some days, so why would you ever want to leave the warm home-cooked meals, free rent, and gas money here and there lifestyle? I know I'm independent, but shoot, my parents are never getting rid of me now.

Anyways, let's get down to business. (I pray about my writing now too, because I want to make sure this can be beneficial to a reader.) So for now I'll start with beauty. The word beauty means a lot to us; well, to a lot of us. I envy you ladies that roll out of bed and get dressed and go. I have a love/hate relationship with the girly side of me most days and think I'm evolving into a bum. Yay!

Well, when I hear beauty I usually first think of makeup, then I think of smiles, and then hydrangeas (oh how I love you hydrangeas). But everyone interprets the meaning of a word differently, so regardless of what first comes to your mind, each one of us has beauty. Yes, each of us is unique in some way. I do not mean by our weight, the shape of our arms, or the length of our hair. When I say beauty to you women, I mean you were wonderfully made, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13." You were created the way you are, not because something is wrong with you. The world has created these unrealistic versions of fake 'beauty,' and sadly, a lot of their standards are not all that beautiful, and most of their crazy diets and "alterations" are dangerous to our health. Beyond that, it is ridiculous that we have created surgeries to change our appearance because we don't like the way we were created and usually because we don't look like what the world has decided is "beauty." Newsflash: no one comes out looking like that. That's why this is all so backwards. I really believe each one of us is beautiful and that we need to stop being mad about what we don't like about ourselves and love what we do have. I hope you will see this the way I do one day if you don't already.

Your appearance does not and will never define who you are as a person. As you are becoming a young adult, remember to love yourself, and have confidence, because that is beautiful. Nobody likes to be around a negative attitude all of the time. Yeah, yeah, we are "female" so we are supposed to knock ourselves down. No. That is every reason to be proud of who you are. The only thing you should be knocking is the stereotype that we are never happy with our appearance. Please, please, please keep your head up high and always tell yourself that you are beautiful, because you are the only one stopping yourself from believing that it's true.