Feeling Confident in Yourself Is Important

The power of confidence. Confidence is a big thing in the society we have today. Not feeling confident in yourself or who you are as a person can make you waste your whole life worrying. Life is short and let me tell you, it's to short to waste worrying on things like that. In today's society, women are put out to be flawless, glowing skin, no acne, big boobs, flat stomach, small waist, thigh gaps, and a nice ass. No normal woman in this entire world has every single one of those things. The women you see out here on the magazines—it's all fake. They are photoshopped into being flawless, made with no mistakes, and it puts out a bad vibe for the women who see these types of things.

As a woman who struggled with self confidence and the way my appearance is I can tell you that the journey to loving yourself is never easy. It's a lot of "fake it 'til you make it" and looking in the mirror every single day saying positive things you do like about yourself. Whether you just want to learn to love the body you are in or whether you want to get in the gym or workout from home and change something about yourself, you need a lot of dedication and self discipline to make your goals happen.

As a young child, I was told I was ugly and fat by the kids at school, told I would never amount to anything and no one would ever want to get married to a girl like me. I felt that I had manly features, such as a slight unibrow and a mustache growing on my upper lip, and some hair on my lower back. My boobs weren't big and my stomach wasn't flat and skinny like the other girls. My whole childhood I struggled thinking these things are all true. Every time I looked in the mirror I just saw this ugly person who I didn't want to be anymore.

Around the age of 16, I was in 10th grade in high school and by this time I had gotten tired of waking up every single morning thinking that no one would like me, so I'd throw on my sweats and a hoodie, throw my hair in a bun, and head to school every single day. I didn't like talking to people so I just normally sat quietly at my desk in the corner of the room.

I remember lying in my bed after school one day and seeing this YouTube video of a water diet. Basically you drink water and only water, no food or anything else, for a certain number of days and supposedly lose a lot of weight very rapidly. I wanted to do this. I wanted to be like the other girls who get all the boys' attention and have popular friends and who get called pretty all the time.

Two weeks into that water diet that I so badly wanted to do, I was hospitalized. I was starving my body and putting it through hell because I wanted to look like something I wasn't. During that hospital stay, I decided I needed to make a change.

Over the next two years, I walked everywhere instead of riding with friends or the city bus. I drank a lot more water; I ate somewhat healthier. I wouldn't say really healthy—I mean, I was a teenager still in high school who liked to snack a lot after school. But for the most part, I watched my portions and watched my calorie intake a lot. If I ate more food that day, I would make sure to walk a little more to balance it out. I would look in the mirror every single day while getting dressed in the morning or washing my hands in the bathroom and I would choose one thing I liked about myself or my body. I did this over and over and there were times when I would cave in and break and tell myself that I had been lying to myself this whole time and none of it was true. But I learned to keep on going.

Soon to be 20-years-old, I have not changed my body very much. I still have no boobs, I still have a tummy that sticks out, I still have thick thighs and crazy frizzy hair, but I've learned that when I'm confident in myself, I feel 100 times better every day. I wake up smiling and ready to go out and do things in the world instead of sitting at home thinking I needed to hide from everyone. I smile more and that happiness is spread to others around me. I compliment others, whether it be their smile, their hair, or their outfit. Those women will feel good about themselves for the rest of the day. Confidence is the most sexy thing you can wear. When you are confident, no one can bring you down. We are women and we don't have to be a perfect flawless Barbie to accept who we are and love ourselves. Woman are built in all shapes and sizes and each and every single one of them are beautiful in their own ways. Skinny, fat, short, tall, big boobs, small boobs, thick thighs, slim thighs, no ass, or big ass, we are all beautiful and if I could do one thing in 2018, it is make every woman understand their self worth and to be confident in who they are and be confident in their own skin!