Within You

"I am not enough." It is scary how one sentence with four words has the ability to completely destroy you. Probably most of us have reached to that point in our lives when we said these words to ourselves.

"Do not read beauty magazines it will only make you feel ugly"

The first word that came to my mind when I first read the line I've chosen from the song "Everybody's Free"—insecurities. It’s the feeling when you feel like you’re not good enough. It’s when you start comparing yourself to other people and you begin to believe you’re not as good as they are.

Insecurities kill self-esteem.

Back when I was still a young child, I used to ask myself, “why am I fat?” it was during those times when the clothes for my age don’t fit me anymore. It was when I realized why some outfits look better when worn by kids less fat than I do. It was when I realized why I’m fat is because I ate too much and that I’m ugly because I’m fat. And that’s all I know: it was my fault why I’m not like the pretty girls on the magazines.

As I grew up, I began to realize that it wasn’t my fault at all, it was the media’s. Beauty magazines are the epitome of portraying unattainable standards of women on which they consider “beauty.” Magazines depict unrealistic (mostly photoshopped) pictures of women which may cause discontentment to the readers. They convey what real beauty means only by being skinny, white, or muscular. This can be referred to as the “thin ideal media” this emphasizes the idea that thinness is a good and desirable thing to be. This made me come up to a conclusion that if you’re thin, you’re a beauty; and if you’re fat, you should probably consider yourself on the ugly side.

Now, I realized a ton of things about the real idea of beautiful. It’s not about being thin, white or muscular to be considered as the epitome of beauty. If you truly believe in yourself that you are beautiful because you are true to yourself, then even those “ideal beauty” written or shown on magazine won’t affect you. It doesn’t matter what’s written on those glossy pages, what matters is that you truly accept yourself no matter who you are and what other people think you are.

It’s okay not to be perfect. It’s okay not to be flawless. It’s okay not to be someone else. I remember a quote I read from a blog: 

“…value your uniqueness and never wish you were born in a different way.”

True beauty doesn’t lie on those articles typed into glossy pages neither the pictures of picture-perfect models that comes with it—true beauty lies in a true person with a pure heart…

it lies within you.