Every teenage girl struggles with being herself -- whether it is speaking her mind or just trying to feel comfortable in her lengthy, awkward, new body parts that are just randomly showing up over night.
I could talk to you all day about the body image issues that I struggled with at a young age or the countless selfies that I took that were not “worth” posting anywhere, but that'll have to wait until next time. As mushy, gross and annoying as it sounds, I truly did not consider myself beautiful until my junior year of high school when my prom date asked me to be his girlfriend. I felt like the most beautiful girl at that moment and it was solely because I knew someone else thought I was beautiful. This sounds ridiculous I know, and four years ago I would have given the girl who said that the worst death glare. But, hey, who cares? What I realized from watching my friends in relationships is people can so easily forget who they are when they get into a relationship. They start to hide their true selves, from their boyfriend or girlfriend, who should be the one person they can truly be themselves around.
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Girls often tend to wear their hair a certain way, never let their significant other see them with out makeup on, and God forbid they forget to shave one day -- but for some reason, that was not my case. From the moment my date asked me to be his girlfriend, I had no problem feeling comfortable in my skin. I felt then, and the future months to come, that I was doing what I wanted because I felt like I was with someone who could let me, not to mention wanted me to be myself. Whenever I wear too much makeup in front of my boyfriend he begs me to take it off. Whenever my hair does not look natural he asks me to change it. He wants me to solely be myself.
This is why I truly believe my boyfriend is the one person who has forced me to be the woman that I am today, not some made-up version of myself that the media is constantly telling me I should be. With social media shoving it down girls' throats what it takes to be “pretty” in this day in age, it is a complete necessity to find someone in your life to show you that you can be the best you possible by just being happy and being yourself. It does not take a significant other for someone else to find happiness in his or her self. It can take one person -- a friend, a sister, a brother, a neighbor or even a dang dog. To me, it just has to be the most important person in the world to you because if they are that important to you, they should make you be the best person you can be and bring out all of the best true qualities in you.
