The journey to self-love has been a long one from crying in the dressing room while you searched for a homecoming dress to being called mean names by middle school boys because you weren’t a size zero. Learning to love yourself is hard but it is even harder when you are constantly being reminded of the reasons you shouldn’t.
Now when you look in the mirror you love what you see, you have always been kind and caring towards others but now you treat yourself with the same kindness, people say if you wouldn’t say it to a stranger don’t say it to yourself and that is something you choose to live by.
You are beautiful, in every single moment even when you do not see it you are exceptionally beautiful, not in spite of your flaws but because of them. The moment you fully understood that your flaws are what make you, you is the very moment you stopped trying so hard to hide them and embraced the fact that you are beautifully flawed, just like everyone else.
You have learned that inner beauty is much more important than the beauty you see when looking in the mirror. You now understand that your heart and soul is the most beautiful thing about you and that is exactly how it should be. If you could see us now you would be so proud, proud of how far we have come and how much further we plan to go on this journey of self-love.
You used to think your self-worth was determined by other people and whether or not they deemed you worthy but now for the first time you fully understand that self-worth can only come from within, it does not matter how many people love you because you love yourself and the relationship you have with yourself is and always will be the most important.
I am writing this letter to you, my younger self and to every other young girl out there to tell you that we aren’t born with self-love and it is okay that that feeling does not come naturally because we must learn how to fully love and accept ourselves. It may seem like you will never reach a point where you can say you love your-self and truly believe those words but one day you will, you will fall so deeply in love with yourself that you cannot believe you ever used to think so poorly of the girl staring back at you in the mirror and you will wonder how you were so oblivious to the beauty that radiated from her. You treat everyone with care and compassion, and it is time you treat yourself the same way, it is time you treat yourself like someone you love. Learn how to fall in love with yourself now, your future self will thank you.