When I was growing up people would comment on my nose and my ears.

People would ask me if I had broken my nose. People would ask me why I had never gotten my nose fixed. People would compare me to other people with flawed noses and tell me that I was still pretty because those people were, even though I would never even comment on my nose. People would call me dumbo for my ears. People would tell me to not tuck my hair behind my ears because it made me look less attractive.

Shockingly, these things still happen now, and I am 19 years old.

I know that my nose has a bump in it. I know that my ears stick out. However, I never would have actually seen myself as different if it wasn't for the people that told me that I was.

I am not against plastic surgery. I know people that have gotten nose jobs. I know people that have gotten boob jobs. I see people all over the internet that have gotten lip fillers.

I am not saying that we need to be in love with every part of our bodies. We all have insecurities and places we think we need to work on and I understand that. However, what we can not do, is let the opinions of others and the comparison of ourselves to others be the deciding factor as to why we want to change something about ourselves.

Just think. If nobody ever told you that you had small lips, would you want them to be bigger? If nobody ever commented on the fact that you had small boobs and they didn't like them would you want a boob job? If nobody ever told you that you were “thicker” would you want to lose weight? If nobody ever told me that my ears stuck out would I want otoplasty? The answer for me is no, and it might be for you as well.

If you never saw an Insta famous girl on your popular page with a waist the size of your fist would you want a waist trainer? If you never saw a viral tweet of a girl with a perfect nose would you have ever wanted rhinoplasty? The answer is probably no.

For me personally, I believe, that if there is something I want to change about myself, with surgery or with not, it has to be 100% for myself and only myself. If I wanted to get a nose job because of something someone said to me or if I wanted to get my ears pinned back because I saw how perfectly Kim Kardashian’s ears were and I wanted to look like her, I would not do it. If I graduate college and still have insecurities with my nose (not brought on by anybody else or by how celebrities look) and think that I would be much happier with a no-bump nose, I will get that bump out of there!

I am not saying that you should never get plastic surgery or to never want to work on your physical self. What I am saying, is that if you want to do something to change yourself, do it entirely for you and only you. In the grand scheme of life, there is so much more to you than the way your face or body looks anyways. And this is something I even have to remind myself.