At one point or another in our lives, we feel inferior to others, even when they tell us things like we're "beautiful", or we're "worth it". Emily Anderson's "I Am Not Beautiful" briefly summarizes teenage emotions in five stanzas. She talks about how people call her a heartbreaker with her looks and a late bloomer in her form. She talks about how she doesn't feel beautiful because although some call her pretty, others think the opposite. However, to finish off the poem, Emily says that she does not need to be beautiful because her work is. 

    In her poem, Emily writes, "I am 16, I do not need to be beautiful, because I am healthy, kind, and smart...I do not need to be beautiful when my work is." Most people who struggle with similar thoughts that Emily included in her poem forget about this last thought, because they are so caught up with their insecurities. They forget to realize that they have other significant qualities that cancel the rest out. Emily addresses this at the end of the poem, by telling her readers that she knows she does not need to be beautiful because she has other things that make her just as equal.