What is the definition of beauty? Is it looking at ripley lake, a pond, a sunrise, or a flower finally blossoming after months being in captivity? In today’s society unfortunately that word is torn apart from its reputation. Society has ripped the mindset of being yourself and being perfect just the way you are. From now on our peers decide how we have to act and dress, a certain way in order to be in the radius of being attractive. To have all their judgy eyes on you wherever you go because you do one thing differently than the rest. Our youthful childhoods start to end as we look at the mirror to fading smiles. Pointing out different parts of our bodies and trying to think of ways to get rid of them. At the shy age of thirteen girls and boys start excruciating diets, long hours of exercise, and spend lots of money just to get a perfect body. But no matter how much people try to fit in there is always something to fix next. It’s a never ending cycle of the emotions one feels. With anger, frustration to breaking down and crying,people can never be happy playing somebody else’s role. 

 In our generation, where the use of technology has risen, the ridiculous beauty standards grew as well. As you scroll for hours on your social media platforms you start to notice a pattern within each post. From the way they style their hair and make-up to the sceneries they choose, viewers try to blend in with them as they want to live the picture perfect lifestyle. Even after posting a photo, people still make negative comments never caring about the effect it has on the person. They don’t see the creators feelings, but a void with colored pixels and codings. Codes destroying the mental state of these influencers causing some to go into a depression state. Teenagers are peer pressured to wear specific clothing brands because it’s “trendy”. Kids should not feel so obligated to over think what they should wear just because society tells them not too. It’s so sad to see someone finally not following the world’s norms and seeing dreadful comments tearing their self-esteem. We should teach this generation to support their peers and be yourself, instead of teaching others how to judge someone based on their looks.

I had an encounter where someone I loved had endured such horrible acts. My little cousin once came up to me crying “Why can I be beautiful, why do I have to look this way!”. My heart shattered to hear those words come out of her mouth. As I tried to comfort her, loads of thoughts came running through my head. I felt sick. Sick of society trying to force such awful social rulings super young. I want her to live in a world to be free. Instead of being trapped in a cage full of insecurities and hateful thoughts. It’s so dark, nothing can pierce through the clouds of shame and guilt. I want to live in a world where it can always be sunny for me, not having the biggest storms affect me. We can still manage to fix this situation. We can stop being so negative and think positively in people’s choices in clothing. All it takes is a simple compliment. People should be able to express themselves in their clothing choices. It’s their form of art and we should accept the fact that not everyone has the same taste in style. We are the next generation and we have the power to change the closed minded mindsets and educate them on why people shouldn’t be shame for how they look or dress. We can’t control the way we look but we can change the way we view others. Every person is like a book cover, each one is different and unique. If all books look the same and have the same stories we would already know what would happen. So be yourself. Walk around in those crazy pattern pants, wear those neon orange sunglasses because you can do whatever you want. It is your own story, so explore and find who YOU really are.