"Your Beauty is your Power"

For my whole life, I always felt like I was constantly being judged. I’ve never felt like the prettiest girl in my class growing up, but I never really understood why. Why can’t I be beautiful? Why are we so quick to criticize each other? I taught myself that being different is a strength. Beauty is subjective. We can’t all look the same or have the same features. Our bodies are made differently for a reason. Being unique is beautiful. I don’t understand why people feel the need to tear others down to make themselves feel better. I’ve come to realize over the years that it’s truly not about the outside at all. We are only defined by our actions and who we are on the inside. And that is what truly matters. There is no greater beauty than peace, love, and compassion. I have finally learned to love the skin that I’m in and to accept myself as I am.

When I was younger, and I’m going to be completely honest, I wanted to be the unrealistic “beauty standards”, we all know what those are, and that’s because I thought that’s what it meant to be beautiful and that people would only like me because of the way I physically looked. But it’s more than just your style. It’s also your background, and your skin color, and your religion. People have been so mean to me personally because I don’t share the same background as them and there are way too many people who get downgraded every day through racism, body-shaming, and even sexism. That needs to stop. There are no realistic “body standards” and it took me a long time to realize that. My biggest inspiration and one of the most important people in my life is my mom. She once told me that I don’t need to worry about others because what I do only affects me and remains with me forever. That piece of advice is what I hold on to every day. 

For starters, do things that make you happy. This year was the first year I played basketball and some of you probably know that I’m an absolute hot mess on the court. Me playing basketball is like having a turtle run track. I mean I’m so bad that in this entire season I made only one basket and that was a free throw. I don’t think anyone misses a free throw. But no matter how bad I was I had a great time and loved what I was doing. My team was so supportive and amazing and I’m really grateful for that. So please don’t let your worst enemy be you. Don’t give up on things you love because you’re worried of what others are going to say. Don’t give in to what other people think or what the society tells you. It doesn’t matter what the society tells you. It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. What matters is you and don’t let anyone or anything make you think otherwise.