Learning to love yourself is a huge step in your life - it's taking a leap towards finding your own happiness. A big part of accepting who you are as an individual is finding out who you are and how you identify. Your identity, who you are, paves a way for the rest of your life. The younger stages of life are incredibly important stages in finding out what you like, what you're capable of, and what you look for in relationships in your life. You may find that you are attracted to one sex more than the other; you may find that you are gifted when it comes to playing the piano. You will make and break friendships, and learn lessons that will stick with you for a lifetime. Going through high school and college will help you find out what you want to do in your career, and help you make friendships with people that may never be broken. The most important thing to remember in this process is that you are in charge of your own future — nobody can take that away from you.

Physically loving the way I look and dress has never come naturally to me, and has really taken time. Body positivity and self-acceptance isn't easy, but helps boost confidence overall. It's good practice to remind yourself that you are perfect just the way you are, and that the only opinion you need about the way you look is your own. Sometimes, you need to set aside moments once a day to stand in front of the mirror and compliment yourself. This may seem odd at first, but the more you say positive things about yourself, the more you start believing them. There will for sure be days where you feel uncomfortable in your own clothes, feel sick and unhealthy, or have bad skin days. There will be days that you really love your outfit and makeup, or just feel really good - these fluctuations are normal. Be mindful of the things you are eating and drinking, and how often you are getting exercise and going outside in the sun. "Too much of a good thing is never a good thing!" Do everything in moderation! This body is the only one you're going to get, so treat it right!

While loving the physical and external part of yourself is an extremely important part of being a positive person, the internal aspect is just as important, if not more. Being genuinely happy with yourself is much easier said than done. The first step to loving yourself is eliminating all self criticism. This includes any physical part of you that you don't like, which I'm sure is the hardest thing to stop doing. It's such a hard thing to prevent because so many of us have it engraved in our daily routine to subconsciously critique everything about ourselves. As cliche as it sounds, we are our own worst critics. Instead of critiquing, try complimenting. Stand in front of the mirror and tell yourself what you like about how you look externally each day. Then move internally and tell yourself what you do like and then what you don't. You are able to change anything about yourself internally that you don't like. Make it a point to root out any negative parts about you in order to let positivity blossom. As soon as the negativity is gone, there's so much more room to allow yourself and your new self-loving personality bloom.

Remember, there's nothing more important than loving yourself.

Co-written by Emma Wooten