Society.

It tells you that a perfect girl needs to be skinny like a twig, have pronounced curves and wear layers of makeup to cover the scars and acne naturally on her face.

Who made society this way? Why is the ideal and perfect girl the most beautiful?

I am a short, average-weighted girl with glasses who does not wear makeup every day to school. Because of how I look, I used to be categorized as words I do not deserve to be called.

Ugly. Worthless. Outsider.

Categorizing because of who you are seems to be the mindset of many people nowadays, and I am one of them. A year ago, I had a lot of acne on my forehead and it made me feel self-conscious. It was not as bad as many of my peers, but it lowered my self-esteem because I had many imperfections on my face that I, unfortunately, couldn’t control.

I had acne scars on my forehead which I cared about deeply a couple of months ago.

Now, however, I have learned to live with it.

My mother once told me, when I was in a bad state mentally, that if there were 100 people lined up, she would choose me as one of the top five prettiest.

Of course, my mother is supposed to say that to me, but out of all of the people who have called me pretty, my mother’s words are what matter most to me. That is when I truly started to believe I am beautiful.

Now, I seem to find so many of my friends always calling me pretty to make my day. I say, “Oh you’re beautiful as well” or “You’re way more beautiful”, and the recipient instantly denies the fact.

I mean it with my heart when I say they are truly beautiful, and the fact people deny it every single time breaks my heart into a million pieces.

I wish I could truly make people believe they are beautiful, but I, unfortunately, cannot fix everything.

Thirty-six percent said they are made to feel the most important thing about them is their looks, which is influenced by society’s definition of beauty.

When I was little, I was bubbly, happy and always super positive. Because of that, many people called me annoying and childish – just for being myself. That caused me to become someone I wasn’t and made me unhappy with who I was. Once I started to actually be myself, I met amazing people who I still know and love today. Those people accepted me for who I was and loved me for me.

More people should focus on people’s personalities rather than their appearances. A genuine heart is what counts the most. That’s pure beauty: beauty from within.

Failure to find the inner beauty in someone is a problem, and we need to find a way to alter that fixed mindset.

Perfection could be different for everyone. Nobody is perfect, and that’s OK: you do not have to wear makeup to look pretty. You look pretty naturally.

You do not have to be society’s definition of perfect to fit into society – that is just a misconception.

CHS junior Tabitha Tudor has experienced struggles of accepting herself as well, and she has helped many go through the process of accepting themselves.

“It doesn’t matter what other people have to say about you,” Tudor said. “The journey is always the most difficult part of anything that you want to achieve – and sometimes you want to give up going through everything but if you really stay positive and get yourself through whatever you’re going through, at the end you’ll be a million times happier than you were at the start.”

If you are ever feeling self-conscious, or like you are not beautiful, I want you to look in the mirror and genuinely see yourself. Notice one thing that you love about yourself and give yourself a compliment.

No matter what height, weight, gender or ethnicity, we are all beautiful and perfect just the way we are.

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