I've always been self-conscious about my body.

Even as a young girl,

I was uncomfortable looking in the mirror for too long,

Because it became easy to pick out my flaws.

My hair is too flat.

My teeth aren't that straight.

My skin is really pale.

I blush too easily.

And don't even get me started about my weight.

Magazines and TV and billboards,

Showed me that the definition of beautiful,

Was a size 2 with long silky hair and bright blue eyes,

And I knew that that would never be me,

So I spent years thinking that I would never be beautiful.

It took me until the age of 20 to realize that beauty,

True beauty,

Is not defined by the size of my waist or how many likes I get on Instagram.

True beauty is defined by what's in your heart.

It's the way you get back up when you get kicked down so many times,

And the way that your smile lights up a room when you walk into it.

True beauty is defined by the positive impact you have on others.

True beauty is that little girl looking up to you saying, "I wanna be like her when I grow up."

True beauty is defined by what's in your soul,

Not by how you look.

So my hair is still too flat,

And I still blush way too easily.

But I no longer focus on my flaws,

Because true beauty,

That is what I see when I look in the mirror now.