How many times have you, as a girl, run into the problem of how to look for college or any other schooling? Do you dress for your mood? Do you dress nicely for yourself? How can we really know what the best option is?

Don’t you have days where all you want to wear is sweatpants and a messy bun? Not even talking about the effort of even gelling back your hair, but letting it be just the way it is? But then people come up to you and have the audacity to say "Are you tired?" or "Are you sick?" I feel girls are NOT required to look perfect all the time. We have things that need to get done that are more important than looking like we are about to do a photo shoot every single day.

Of course, I personally know people who straighten their hair every single day and never show me how they look naturally. I know girls that always wear makeup and I just wonder where do you get the time? Between waking up from my alarm 20-30 minutes later and showering, I barely even have time to eat. I’m wondering if these people wake up two hours before they leave just so they have time to “look good.”

This also begs the question if you are looking “put together” all the time, is it because you feel insecure doing the opposite or because you feel confident? Are you willing to do a “sweatpants, hair-tied, chillin’ with no makeup on” (Drake, “Best I Ever Had”) day? And this is absolutely NOT a blow to girls who always keep it together. I actually admire them.

Flip the notion that a girl has to look a certain way and you just have all types of girls around you. There is a problem that needs to be addressed- that when girls dress up, they are doing it for attention from everybody they may potentially be interested in. I personally think the stigma around that should be addressed. Many girls, like myself, don’t “try” too hard in the looks department, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want attention either. It is a paradox. We want to look good, we just don’t always make the effort.

There should be a balance. Honestly, when you are walking around in public and know that you don’t necessarily look “dressed to impress” your self-esteem might go down. But if you decided to do your hair and wear an extremely “cute” outfit, you won’t mind where you are going. If you bump into someone from your past and you look “good,” chances are you’ll feel way better than if you are just in sweatpants. But where do we draw the line between looking “good” to potentially please others AND ourselves, and looking “average” when we rush out of the house? It may be tough to put in the extra time during the week, so you may compensate by going out on weekends like I do, but there really should be a balance.

As an observation of myself, not caring on certain days was not a bad thing until people addressed it to me. There were negative connotations associated with it. You are called insecure and not confident. You are looked at as someone who doesn’t take care of themselves. But that is all judgment that can be avoided if you seriously do not care what others think. So be you, and no matter how you dress, know that someone may always be paying attention, but the right one won’t think negatively of you.