Dear amazingly awesome young lady,

Yes, I’m referring to you. You are beautiful, smart, intelligent, funny, and perfect. Yeah, you read it right, perfect.

I bet you’re asking yourself how I know this. I mean it’s not like I know you or anything. The simple truth is besides the fact that I am a girl and can relate to your daily struggles it's also true that there hasn’t been anyone who ever existed or will ever exist with your sense of humor, charm, and personality.

You are an original.

You have passions, strives, and strong opinions that matter. An impacting voice, a touch that changes, and a smile that has the power to brighten up anyone’s day. You can do whatever your heart desires because you are capable of it. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. Prove them wrong by just being yourself.

There’s a stigma that comes along with being a female. We often hear others say “like a girl” to describe a weak and funny action. That couldn’t be any more wrong. Just look at Marie Curry who became the first woman to win a Noble Prize in 2 areas and co-discovered 2 different elements along with being the first person to suggest using radiation as a cancer treatment! Gertrude Belle Elion, a Noble Prize-winning research scientist who co-developed 2 drugs that fought leukemia and developed the first immunosuppressant agent which made it possible to transplant organs. Harriet Tubman, who was a fugitive slave that rescued 300 others just like her, was a Civil War spy and nurse plus many more others just as influential as these women. Their actions are nowhere near comical and cowardly. They are strong. Although Marie, Gertrude, and Harriet impacted the world in different ways, they do have something in common besides the fact that they are all women. They defeated the “norm”.

Instead of having us idolize historic women like the ones from above, the media surrounds us with constant images of half-naked ladies that make us feel worthless and insecure. Young girls start dieting as early as age 5. They become anorexic or bulimic with the hope of looking like a Victoria Secret model. How can we love ourselves if there are even better people surrounding us? Well those better people don’t exist. An average American fashion model is 5 ft. 11 and weighs only 117 pounds. Only about 3% of the world population can stay alive being that skinny but no one tells us that. They just enforce the message that the skinnier you are the more attractive you become. Those models on magazine covers that everyone admires and that society bases beauty standards on are just fabricated images. They are the product of photoshop, lighting, make-up, and wigs. Those pictures aren’t real, but you are.

Whoever made up the beauty standards is very narrow-minded. Beauty isn’t in the shape of just one particular thing. Beauty is in everything we see; the sunset, the morning dew, children laughing, chocolate cake, and you.

While I was skimming through Instagram my eyes came across a quote from Taylor Swift. She said that it’s our nature to like something new. We like our new shoes better because, well, we just got them. This is why we don’t love ourselves. We’ve been looking at the same reflection for all our lives.

We need to work together and support each other. Life can be challenging but it's a bit easier when we're all in it together.

I truly hope you face your insecurities and rise up to your fullest potential so you too can someday be next to our great sisters.

Don't ever think, not even for a moment that you're not worth it. You deserve all the greatness that life has to offer.

You are beautiful and sometimes all we need is to hear that again.

Love,

Your sister from another mister