What's beautiful

I've been thinking a lot lately about girls and their body image, self-esteem, self-worth, and so on and so forth. It breaks my heart to know that all these girls, at a younger and younger age as the years pass, feel like something is always wrong with the way they look; they believe they look "wrong" because they don't fit a mold.

So, I ask you this: What is beauty? Can it even be defined? It seems to all be in perception to me...maybe you disagree. If so, what is your definition of beauty?

And how do we get these definitions and perspectives anyway? They don't just pop up out of nowhere, do they? Of course not. There's this website called Six Billion Secrets where people (obviously) post secrets...and if you look under the "Self-Esteem" section, you will find that there are a lot of girls on there posting about their negative body image...and, to my disgust, a very large portion of them got that image of themselves from their parents. One girl said her family couldn't afford much food, so she started to not eat because she wanted her brother to have more food since he was younger...noble act, right? Well, imagine how you would feel if you were in her shoes when her mother agreed that she needed to do that because she was overweight anyway. And then the girl who has only had tea to drink for days because every time she tries to eat anything, her mother says she's had enough...since when is nothing enough?

I trust my parents and if they ever said those kinds of things to me (which they don't), I would take their words to heart, too. So I get it. But isn't that just heart-wrenching? These girls feel worthless, unloved, and lost because of the very people who are supposed to show them the most unconditional love and support. That's just wrong.

But elsewhere on this site, there are the girls who say they woke up this morning and realized they loved themselves, flaws and all, and could be strong and beautiful in their own skin. Some people aren't that happy and content with themselves, but I wish they were. I've never met a girl who wasn't stunningly radiant and beautiful. Nope, not once. But not all of those girls know that they are just as gorgeous as the other girls they see every day...they need to be reminded.

And they aren't reminded by looking in the mirror. There are a lot of girls who fear the mirror; they literally don't want to face themselves and know what's on the outside they can't see of themselves. They don't want to know that they are different...but isn't being different more fun? Being unique is much more exciting than being the cookie-cutter Barbie doll we see day-in and day-out. And who really wants to be plastic anyway? Girls, go look in the mirror and smile because YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.