I Am Not Ashamed to Love Myself

In today’s society, it is difficult to admit that you love yourself. It’s even more difficult to begin loving yourself in the first place. Instagram models, TikTok stars, and celebrities look perfect… all of the time. I’m sure we all wish we could look as amazing as Addison Rae when doing TikTok dances in front of the camera, and I’m sure gorgeous Instagram models pop up on our Explore pages every day. But, despite all of the images in our head that tell us what we “should” look like, we should all learn to love ourselves the way we are. And, once we start loving ourselves, we shouldn’t be ashamed to admit it. I’ve found that when I see girls hyping themselves up or feeling good about the way they look or about the things they do, I start noticing things I love about myself and my life too. It has taken me a long time to get rid of my low self-esteem and to be happy with what I see when I look in the mirror, but I have found that being happy with who you are isn’t all about what you look like. 

When I was 15, I suffered from severe cystic acne. Not only was it physically painful, but it also severely damaged my self-esteem. I remember that someone once told me that my face looked like a pepperoni pizza, and I also remember waking up every morning and not wanting to go out anywhere. After a couple of months of battling my cystic acne, I decided that I wasn’t going to let my acne define me. I decided that I was going to find things that I love to do, and I was going to perform the best that I could in everything that I did. And, that’s exactly what happened. I joined the Debate Team at school and worked super hard and became Team Captain, I rehearsed every day to claim my spot in the acappella singing group, and I trained six days a week and became the Captain of the Swim Team. Most importantly, I put myself out there and started making friends. It was hard at first, but I tried very hard to start conversations with people, even if I noticed them staring at my acne. I made so many friends from working up the courage and refusing to hide because of the way I looked. Overtime, I noticed that my acne didn’t bother me as much. It was still there, prominent as ever, but it didn’t stop me from living my life in the ways that made me happy. And that is when I started loving myself. I didn’t start loving myself because I was perfect, but I started loving myself because I was happy. 

  The person you see in the mirror is who you are. The skin you wear is the skin that you will always wear. You will change and your life will change, but you are you forever. I think it’s time that we start accepting our bodies and our skin for what they are, and to continue to just live life. Once we stop comparing ourselves to others and start being the people we want to be despite what others have to say, we will love ourselves more and more. You are beautiful and your life is beautiful, and you should be able to admit it. Dance the way you want to dance, do what you want to do, wear what you want to wear, and love every single moment of the life that only you get to live.

• mental health
• self acceptance
• self-love
• wellness