I’ve seen articles like these floating around Odyssey, and they’ve always spoken to me. I’ve always been called pretty, or some simple variation of the world and I was unsure what I wanted to write about this week, until I came across a poem on Pinterest. It’s by Nikita Gill and called “Don’t Be Beautiful.” It is as follows:

They keep saying that beautiful is something a girl needs to be.

But honestly? Forget that. Don’t be beautiful.

Be angry, be intelligent, be witty, be klutzy, be interesting,

be funny, be adventurous, be crazy, be talented -

there are an eternity of other things

to be other than beautiful.

And what is beautiful anyway

but a set of letters strung together to make a word?

Be your own definition of amazing, always.

That is so much more important than anything beautiful, ever.

When I read this, it resonated within me and inspired me to look into more Nikita Gill poetry, and in doing so, I found another piece that further solidified my decision to write this article. This one is entitled “Pretty isn’t a Pretty Word” and goes:

Stop calling her pretty. She isn’t ‘pretty’.

Pretty doesn’t even begin to describe her. She is so much more than that.

She is kind hearted and heartbroken, gentle and dangerous, an angel one day and a she devil the next, intelligent yet silly, hilariously funny yet devastatingly sad, she is passion personified as a human being.

Pretty isn’t even close. She is a supernova that trails stardust in her wake, a constellation of contradictions plucked from outer space.

And all you can think to call her is ‘pretty’.

As my resolve to write this article has been solidified by reading these two Nikita Gill poems, without further ado, here is a list of 17 things I’d rather be called than pretty.

1. Astute
2. Elegant
3. Honest
4. Genuine
5. Humble
6. Awkward
7. Adventurous
8. Steadfast
9. Cautious
10. Captivating
11. Impulsive
12. Witty
13. Scintillating
14. Funny
15. Ardent
16. Kind
17. Unforgettable