You are not ugly. You’re told at least three times a day how beautiful you are. You wake up extra early to primp and polish and dress to the nines every day. You go to the gym every day and always ask us how you look and we always give you the same answer in variation, you look great.

No matter how often you are told that you are beautiful, you won’t believe us. You still look in the mirror and see someone you don’t like to look at. I don’t think we will ever understand why, and I don’t know if you will either, but my wish for you is that someday you will look in that mirror and see someone worth being proud of.

It's unsettling the amount of girls who struggle with self-confidence. Every girl has struggled with loving themselves at some point in their lives, and today’s society doesn’t exactly do a great job of helping out with this. The promotion of perfect bodies such as Kendall Jenner’s or Taylor Swift's is harmful to young girls who’s bodies just don’t exactly work that way. Editing tools such as photoshop, that take naturally beautiful girls and edit their bodies to an unrealistic standard creates an image for girls that is unobtainable. Fortunately, several companies have started a movement where they don’t use photoshop and not all of their models are a size zero, which creates a more realistic and relatable image for young girls. This is a small step in a self-appreciation movement, but a step nonetheless.

I wish every young girl knew how beautiful she was. I wish she knew how loved she is. In God’s eyes, we are all created in His image and His image is beautiful. God created only one of you, there is no one out there exactly like you. Relish in that, you are your own.

Now, to my friend who thinks she’s ugly. You are not ugly. You are beautiful, brave and one of a kind. This world would not be the same without you in it and I’ll remind you of this every day until you believe it to be true.