The discovery of love is one thing I can’t speak on I love my family, and friends don’t get me wrong, but a partner “nah”. However, the discovery of self-love I can tell you about that, even though I have my off days I truly believe I have this beautiful thing called self-love packed down. This discovery of mine is actually quite recent as in recent I mean September 15th which was yesterday. It wasn’t easy looking past the dark marks, acne, and mustache I’m afraid to cut because I don’t want it to grow back darker. However, I eventually looked past them and I feel like what I assume Beyoncé felt like when she won her first Grammy.

What it took? Well it took a lot of pep talks, selfies, and staring in the mirror for 30 minutes looking myself up and down. Sometimes I see flaws in my uneven face, but immediately go from looking at the outline of my face to something on my face I like. Like my eyes I find my dark eyes beautiful and I love how my long eyelashes compliment them. When I feel insecure about my height I think about how I can reach high places so I can hide my watermelon Sour Patch from the rest of my family, also how people avoid starting confrontations with me because apparently tall girls with broad shoulders are intimidating. All in all this “discovery” of self-love has boost my confidence and I feel like I can carry out anything. When I finally looked past my flaws I cried because I truly saw my beauty in its purest form.

—By Lizzaraih M., 16, Georgia