If my clothes are not tight, he will not like me. If my hair is not straight then he won’t pay attention to me…


These are the thoughts running through young girls head everyday and after looking at the perfect model on the front of the magazines who’s to say every girl that passes through who sees that, doesn’t feel that way. Image is so important to our modern day culture. It’s beginning to look as if it is taking the number one spot on our priority lists. Body image is tearing us American’s apart. The high standards are not at all possible to live up to.

Most people measure your beauty based on your outside appearance and that as your worth. I firmly believe the most drop-dead gorgeous person could be the coldest. I cannot imagine the amount of people who blame their insecurities on the mirror. These insecurities come from the television, computer, media, and magazines. Boys are now placing high standards on girls and vice versa. If a girl does not have a “coca- cola body” then she isn’t your “type”. The same goes for girls; if a guy does not have a 6-pac then he is not worth your time.

The media puts these high standards on beauty and therefore the people around you too. Your teeth have to be completely straight and white. Let’s not forget the essentials; makeup and flat iron that every girl must have. You can’t be too pale or too dark; pimples on your face have to be gone! Proactive becomes your best friend at that very exact moment. Are your eyes brown? You have to get contacts immediately because brown eyes are so over rated. Have you gained a few pounds? Looks like I see a diet in your future. Are your boobs to small? Well, plastic surgery is always an option. The imperfections never end, every time you fix what the world calls wrong then something else comes and continues to come. It never stops!
I hate the very fact that there are young girls just like me who hate the way they look because everyone says they have to look a certain way. There is NO certain way that everyone has to look; there is no book of looks. If your hair is curly who says you have to straighten it, if your eyes are dark brown then who says you have to get contacts? Sometimes this means we have to look in the mirror and blame the person inside for letting everyone influence our way of us.

There is no one else on this earth that looks exactly like me. I’m glad I stopped, took a deep breath, and finally said “You are beautiful”. I am not perfect I don’t have the longest hair, my eyes are brown, my teeth are not perfectly straight, my boobs are not the biggest, but I am pretty. No one can tell me otherwise. I am Quanisha A. and I honestly am glad I stopped living up to everyone else’s standards of beauty. I am not perfect but I’m beautiful and who said perfection meant beautiful anyway? No matter who says you have to look like this or that, you’ll realize it’s the opposite, you just have to look like yourself.