We have all been there, bummed out after we posted a selfie on Instagram or Facebook, and it not getting the amount of likes or comments that you had hoped. Its upsetting, isn't it? The fact that we basically rely on other peoples opinions, letting them determine our self worth and our own self love?

I won't lie, having high self-esteem and love for myself is something I struggle with. I think one of the biggest factors that play into that disturbing feeling is social media. I scroll through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat multiple times a day, seeing models or other famous people's posts and I'll say things like "Oh my god, they are perfect," "Why can't I look like that?" "I want to be her," or "Her life is perfect." But are they really perfect? So just because someone may have great hair and a slim body makes them perfect? We don't know their entire life and who they are as a person or what they could be going through. People hide their true selves on social media they post happy things, the things people wanna see. It's like social media is changing us as people; we feel like we have to alter ourselves and our identities. We put things up that people want to see and what will give us the most likes or the most shares. Some people completely lose themselves. They become so consumed in who they want others to see them as that they become someone they are not and their true self goes out the window. But where is that self-love and self-respect for who you truly are?

Without us even knowing, every time we scroll through social media it bites away slowly at our self-esteem. We are wanting to change ourselves because its so hard to feel happy with the way we are when we feel like other people are "perfect." It's so hard now-a-days to feel comfortable in our own skin with the media that surrounds us with these images of people portrayed as "perfect." Feeling like we aren't good enough, or that we aren't pretty enough, or we aren't skinny enough, eat away at us without us knowing. It is hard enough being a teenager, but adding on others people's opinions doesn't help. With technology today, girls and boys are having access to it at such an early age that they start stereotyping different groups of people. As they get older they are consumed in a world of fake identities and no one truly knows our personalities and our natural well-liked qualities because they're hidden behind things like Instagram filters It is like putting a mask on but it gets to a point where people start to love that mask you have on, and you feel that the mask is now your every day you, and the true you slips away.

Never forget how perfect you are just being YOU. Don't let social media consume you and make you believe you are not good enough. Be you, don't let the amount of likes, shares, comments dictate how you see yourself. Taylor Swift once said, "Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself."