Dear you,

Yes, you. This is for you.

You light up the room with your smile. You are always there to lend a helping hand whether to a friend or a stranger. You are kind. You find joy in making others happy. You are intelligent, a hard worker, and are heavily involved in most aspects of your life. On the outside, you appear to have everything going for yourself. But what others don’t see is how incredibly harsh and critical you can be…on yourself.

You know exactly who I’m talking about. You are that girl who is never satisfied with herself. You’re always looking to improve upon something or be a better “you.” You’re extremely self-critical, terrible at taking compliments, and are always dwelling on the negatives.

In your eyes, enough will never be enough. No matter how hard you try or how much effort you put forth, you always question whether or not you could have done more. You could have approached a situation in a different way or said something better. You are constantly questioning the “what ifs.”

Let’s face it; no matter how hard you try to hide it, you’re insecure.

You distract yourself from your insecurities by staying busy. You tend to commit yourself to too many things. Your daily schedule is filled from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. You find yourself wishing you had more free time to actually enjoy your life.

You’re used to being overwhelmed because that’s just what you’ve always done. How could you live your life in any other way? It helps you not think about deeper topics. It helps you stay focused and driven on figuring out your future.

When you were younger, you were carefree and reckless and unafraid to fall. As you got older, you let yourself become obsessed with attaining perfection, and you let this obsession consume you. You’re on an unrealistic quest to be perfect.

And in turn, you are slowly becoming miserable.You are your own worst enemy. You are the first to judge every word you say or every decision you make. Every detail about yourself is thoroughly examined, critiqued, and deemed unacceptable. But why?

It’s okay to be insecure.

Rather than being ashamed of your insecurities, embrace them! Your insecurities are what make you, you. They set you apart from everyone else, and make you the beautiful girl you are.

Why do the majority of young women today think it is okay to think others are more worthy of kindness than we are? We absolutely do not deserve the disrespect we receive from our own selves.

Admit it, you would never treat a close friend the way you treat yourself. I can guarantee that if a friend was as harsh and critical of you as you are to yourself, you would not consider them a friend.

We need to realize that the only thing keeping us from being happy with who we are is within ourselves. By replacing all of that self-hatred with more self-love, we can attain the happiness we have been looking for this whole time. It is time for you to live your life! Be proud of yourself for any accomplishment you make, big or small. Treat yourself with the kindness that you treat everyone else with. You deserve it! Give yourself a break and take care of yourself.

It all starts with you.

You won’t find happiness in a job or because of a special someone. You won’t find it by burrowing your head into books and studying for hours on end. You won’t find it in a flawless and unblemished GPA. You won’t find it by going to every party or to every social event.

These are just distractions to keep you from thinking you are not good enough. By being extremely involved with school, clubs, jobs, or volunteering, you are trying to find solace in the fact that your involvement makes up for your insecurity that you’re not good enough.

You find yourself in this state of ruthless self-judgment. You want to meet society’s shallow standards of what a beautiful, young woman is, and you know what? That’s not only extremely ridiculous, but that’s simply unattainable. Who cares what society thinks is the epitome of what a young female should look and act like?

An over-edited Instagram picture with a lot of likes isn’t a representation of who you are or what your goals are in life.

Sorry, everyone.

All that matters is what you think of yourself in the end -- not your Instagram or Twitter followers.

Be the girl who is unapologetically herself. Sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry, laugh freely and loudly and never be sorry for loving yourself.

Letting other people control how you see yourself is a tragic waste of the person you are. Wake up every morning and tell yourself that you’re beautiful, strong, and can conquer anything and continue to tell yourself that until you truly believe it.

You are beautiful for being you, and this is where happiness resides.

Read these words as many times as it takes you to believe it: You are so much more than enough.

Sincerely,

Someone like you