So you hate it. You hate the width of your thighs or your diameter in the middle or how short you are or how tall you are. You hate your dad bod or your mom bod or your flat butt or your large hips or your arms or your shoulders. You hate your breasts or what's in between your legs or your nose or the size of your ears. You hate your freckles and your scars.

But why?

Who told you that it's not okay to be a certain way that you are?

There's going to be some days where you wake up and look in the mirror and put on your favorite outfit and your hair's going to look great and you are going to feel great and you're going to take on the world and absolutely kill it.

But not every day is like that.

Some days you're going to look in the mirror and see everything that's wrong. You'll be bloated and your face will drag. You'll look extra scrawny or extra large that day. You won't even recognize the face in the mirror because it's so distorted and morphed and so not you.

There will be some points where the negative part of your brain takes over and you never look quite the way you want to. It could last two days or ten days or two years or ten years. It's all going to be okay.

When it happens, slow down. Slow way down. Stop being so negative. Shut it off like a switch in your brain. Feel stupid and tell yourself you look great in the mirror three times even if you don't believe it. There is never as many people looking at you as you think. They can't see what you see. They don't matter.

You, though, you absolutely without a doubt matter.

Negative body image is like a deep dark hole. Once you're in, there's not a lot of ways out except for upwards. You cannot allow yourself to sit there with your negative body image. It will affect every part of you whether you realize it or not.

You need to know your body changes every single day and that not every change is ideal.

You need to know that nothing is really that permanent if you don't want it to be.

I am not invalidating your experience, both good and bad, by asking you to be kinder to yourself. I am not saying this is easy, this is clear-cut, or this is a start-and-stop thing. It's certainly not a one-time deal. It's a process. What I am saying right now is it's unbearable to watch you tear yourself apart like that. Think of how far those legs have carried you or what those arms can do. Think about what you love and stop dwelling so badly on the things you hate.

I'm not asking for an extra time commitment or a complete lifestyle change. I'm asking you to spend the same amount of time you spend in the mirror with a different mindset. It's all one big mental game.

I understand that not every day is a good day. I understand that you need support to grow into the best version of yourself. I need all those things too. I just need for you to know that someone is going to come along and love every little inch that you hate. It wouldn't hurt if the first person to do that is yourself.