Generally beauty is determined on physical appearance, however, this kind of beauty is circumstantial. It depends on a person's perception of beauty and what they consider to be beautiful. Real, true beauty comes from the inside. It comes from who a person is. Real beauty comes from being true to yourself and to your beliefs. Real beauty can take years, to discover and some people are never able to recognize it. Real beauty never goes out of style, it is powerful and inspirational. Every person has real beauty, the difficult part is discovering it in yourself. Learning to look inwards for beauty instead of having it projected onto you by what others think of you is very difficult but it is one hundred percent worth it. It is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do.

I am just learning how to love myself for who I am. I was encouraged to develop a sense of who I was as a person before I even started to consider my looks. I started by developing opinions about issues, figuring my own views of right and wrong. Establishing my own values, my own hobbies and what I am passionate about. I figured out how to find my voice and how to stand up for myself. In doing this I am now able to start to work on accepting my physical appearance.

Your body does not determine your worth, your looks are not the sum of who you are. You are so much more than that. An eating disorder will tell you that you are only worth something when you are thin, and nothing else matters. It will tell you that being skinny is the goal, a goal that is worth risking everything for including your life. However, with an eating disorder, you will never be skinny enough. Your skinniest will never be enough because you will never be happy with your body. That is the goal of an eating disorder, to torture you until you die.

I had to learn this the hard way. I did not think my eating disorder was going to hurt me in any way, I thought it was going to make me happier, healthier and worth more. Instead, it almost killed me. I did not realize then what it meant to love yourself, that loving yourself is loving who you are inside and out. That eating was not going to make me fat, it gave me more energy and more life. I have never felt as alert and alive than I do now. I lived with my eating disorder for 11 years before I realized how much it was taking from me. In January I was finally able to discover who I could be when I ate, I learned that I have a voice and opinions and the strength to embrace these things.

Learning how to value yourself as a person is very difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as learning to love your body. If you learn to value yourself as a person you can begin to treat yourself better, you can eat and value your life. If you value your life you can begin to realize that your body is beautiful because it protects you