I’ll admit, I do it too. I’ll stand in the mirror criticizing every inch of my body, saying I need to fix this or work on that. I’ll look on Pinterest for hours searching for weird remedies on how to get rid of baggy eyes or annoying cellulite. I’ll look at pictures of “fitness goals” for motivation, and compare myself to those girls and wish how I was just like them. However, I realized that this wasn’t motivating me or helping at all. In fact, it was making me even feel worse about myself than I had before.

It’s hard to live in this society as a woman when you have butts like Kim K and legs like Carrie Underwood staring you in the face of every social media site or magazine you see. It’s so easy for you to compare yourself to these people and wish that you could look just like them. It’s even easier to tear someone down just to build yourself up.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m so exhausted from this body shaming battle that has been going on. Not only do we do it to ourselves, but we do it to others. It’s so annoying, and it hurts me to see so many beautiful people not being comfortable in their own skin. We are taught there is almost a formula to how to be beautiful and we have to fit the part in order to fit into society. We have to look a certain way or wear certain things to be socially acceptable or qualify as “beautiful.” What happened to being comfortable in your own skin? I’ve seen makeup tutorials that are twenty minutes long about how to wear the “natural look.” How ironic is it that natural beauty is now a mask we paint on our faces?

Now, I’m not trying to say that makeup is evil and no one should wear it. I’m a huge makeup junkie myself. I just think that makeup should be something you use to express yourself, not as a way to cover up your insecurities. Just like you should want to wear the clothes you want without the fear of them not being “cool.” I remember being a little girl and putting on makeup and dressing up because it was fun, not because it was a way to hide the parts of myself I didn't approve of.

It’s that criticizing and judging that really bothers me. We not only do it to others, but we do it to ourselves, sometimes without even realizing it. Yes, that scene in Mean Girls actually holds more truth than you would think.There has been a numerous amount of times where I’m sitting with my friends and someone will say something they dislike about themselves, and almost instantly there is this chain reaction of everyone taking a turn saying what they think is wrong with their own bodies. They hate their hair, or their arms, or they need to go on a diet. It's almost like a competition to see who can say the worst thing about themselves so that everyone else can feel better.

I just think that life is hard enough as it is so why make it even more difficult? Instead of searching for the bad, see the good. If you have curves, show them off. If you have freckles, let the world see them. You never know if qualities that you might dislike about yourself might just be the ones that someone else finds to be the most beautiful part of you.

I was recently at a concert in Austin and the girl performing made a great point. She said that we all were put on this Earth for a purpose, and that no one is going to remember that your stomach wasn’t the flattest or your face wasn’t perfectly contoured. They’re going to remember you by the beautiful acts you did and by who you were. So instead of searching for your flaws, search for your purpose. Instead of taking turns saying something bad, say something positive. Embrace your body and embrace your life, because the real natural beauty of who you are should be what everyone finds beautiful.