You're too skinny, too fat, too tall, too short.

Your hair is better long, better short.

You should do this, do that. Don't do this, don't do that.

When did it happen? The constant, unreachable fight to hit the bar of modern-day beauty standards. Beauty standards are everywhere we look in our culture — our media, film, literature, ads, in schools, even embedded into things such as the wrappers on our food products. They dictate, trap and tell us to conform. We are bombarded with them the minute we step into any store, turn on any tv or log onto any social media platform.

Beauty standards are a form of oppression.

The constant reach for the all telling "beauty standard" is meant to be impossible. Meant to make money, sell product and decrease overall feelings of worth. When did it happen? Have beauty standards always been a factor in society? Why are we so trapped within their rules and obligations?

Here it is, plain and simple, all bodies are beautiful — flaws and all. The body is a powerful vehicle and the fact that we are tearing it apart and overworking it for a certain standard is disheartening.

To fight this form of oppression, we must empower. Celebrate the beauty in all its forms. Beauty cannot be defined as a single thing. Beauty is radical, unique and far exceeds what the eye sees. We have to realize there is no such thing as perfect and everyone struggles with some degree of self-esteem due to the constant pressure of the standard weighing down on each of us.

Instead of covering it all up, why don't we encourage and celebrate the act of embracing yourself and what makes you you? We need radical forms of activism when it comes to the idea of self-love. Self-love is important and we can't let the beauty standard weigh us down anymore.

It's time to love your flaws and embrace uniqueness.