To The Girl In The Mirror,

To say the least, we've been through a lot together. We've been by each others' side from the time we grass stained all of our clothes as a kid, through those gawky middle school years, all the way until now. Sometimes you lift me up, sometimes you tear me down, but my, my how far we've come.

When we were little, we didn't care about our appearance. Our hair could be a ratty tangled mess, our clothes could be dirty, and our arms and legs could be scratched but we didn't care. We were content with going out and creating our own happiness not based upon appearance.

However, at some point along the way our appearance became linked to our happiness. This is when things started to become troubling and our relationship grew tense. We listened to the people that decided that we were fat and ugly. You asked me how I could do this to you. You started to point out our chubby stomachs, our stretchmarks, our thick legs. You were angry with me and I felt ashamed with myself. You were right, I had let us both down.

I finally decided to do us both a favor and lose the weight. We both delighted at the idea and watched as our bodies changed into what we wanted, tone and slim. All of the hours of work finally paid off. However, people found snarky things to say about that too (sometimes even to our faces). Ironic isn't it? There's just no making people happy.

As the years have passed I have worked towards building our self confidence. I tell you it doesn't matter what people think of us, that we should be happy with ourselves. Sometimes you listen and you comment on how nice our hair turned out or how cute our makeup looks and we go through the day feeling confident and happy. Other times, you can't help but pick at us. You point out the crook in our nose and our wavy hair; the cellulite on the back of our thighs or the way clothes start to fit differently when we gain a few pounds. I acknowledge your critiques and can see why you're disgusted. Sometimes I hate myself for it, but most times I hate you even more for making me feel that way. Why can't we just be happy with each other? Why can't you be happy?

Girl In The Mirror, one day, I hope that I can look at you and you can look at me and we can both agree that we are perfect the way we are

With love,

The Girl On The Other Side