Beautiful girls

This is randomly an article I wrote, and I was about to write a whole different post about it, because it's been on my mind lately. However, then I realized that since I already said it all, I might as well just repost :) So here it is -

As high school wears on, differing opinions about what beauty is can be found everywhere. In elementary school, insults to girls’ attractiveness were limited to simple things like “metal mouth” or “four eyes.” Nothing could possibly be worse than having that cliched “nerd” look.
However, once elementary school ended, us newly teenage girls suddenly faced a whole new realm of standards in the ideal body type. In high school, obsession with body image is everything.
Teenage girls all seem to have that one thing (or many things) about themselves they cannot stand. I hate the gap between my two front teeth, some girls hate their freckles or their skin tone, and others covet their friend’s hair color or texture. Some girls dislike their braces or glasses, and it seems that more than any other, girls are self-conscious about their body type.
Every girl, including myself, would love to be the epitome of beauty. However, who can say exactly what that is? Some think of tall, curvy, blonde, blue-eyed babes. Girls wear heels, color their hair and get contacts or wear ridiculous inserts to achieve this ideal image.
On the other hand, many tall girls feel awkward, and many blondes want to be brunettes or redheads. For many, the prettiest girls are those with dark eyes, hair and skin.
Ironically, and sadly, it seems that no matter who we are or what we look like, teenage girls think the prettiest girls are the ones who do not look like themselves. If a girl is a little larger or curvier, then she assumes it is best to be rail thin. Girls with lovely, curly heads of hair envy those with stick straight hair.
Interestingly enough, a good amount of the ideal in beauty comes with culture. Some cultures view women who are overweight as attractive, because it signifies wealth, such some Central African countries. That also holds true with those who have lighter skin in certain Asian countries. Gaps between the two front teeth are actually becoming stylish in some places, including here, with gap-toothed models such as Dutch fashion model, Laura Stone, on demand.
What true beauty is will always vary depending on the person and their background. If only we teen girls would realize that not a single girl is gorgeous to everyone, and not a single girl is unattractive to everyone. Still, that doesn’t stop us from wishing that we were whatever we aren’t. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side.
Being comfortable in your own skin is ridiculously difficult, and is made ever harder by the constant ideas of perfection shoved at us by the media. It also doesn’t help that we feel like we have to impress the guys around us as well as our fellow female teenagers. We feel like everywhere we go, people have opinions on who is hot and who is not.
It is pretty common knowledge that a confident girl is a beautiful girl. Still, with pressure pushing in from every side, that’s something easier said than done. Insecurity causes problems that range from trivial to crisis every day. However, in a world where self-esteem issues abound, and everyone wants what everyone else has, gaining confidence enough to, cheesily as it may sound, reach our potential, is well worth the effort.
When self-esteem is based on the view of the current high school or media hype, we are in for a rocky ride. There will always be those people, and that part of ourselves that will insist that we are never good enough, physically or otherwise - and it will always be tempting to believe them. Why is it so hard to step back and see ourselves for what we honestly are, what we can accomplish if we trust ourselves to try? It’s about time that true beauty takes a stand.

It's pretty cheesy since the people in charge like dramatic calls to action, but the point is there. It's driving me nuts - why are we all so obsessed with looking like or being someone else??? HMMMM??

The end :)