When you're a little girl, no one has to tell you you're beautiful. You know it. It's a part of who you are. I remember when I was little, I would play around and pretend I was a princess and any old boy that came along could be my prince. If I recall correctly, I also thought I was pretty darn gorgeous. Basically I was a little party girl, and we have pictures to prove it.
 
  Somewhere along the line, that changes. You get older and more self-conscious...then your first real crush decides he doesn't like you and calls you a freak. Suddenly you're unbeautiful, and you feel lost. You want to know what beauty is and how you can achieve it. You want to know how you spent your whole life never knowing you were a hideous pig that no one liked.

  That's when American culture swoops in on its vulnerable prey. It offers you a solution to your 'ugly' problem. "If you're slim enough, he'll like you!" "If you buy this makeup, you'll be pretty!" "If you wear this type of clothes, he'll want to go out with you!" You buy into it, not knowing that beauty cannot be defined, and even if you look like Angelina Jolie, not everyone is going to faint in your presence.

  You want to be pretty, so you do whatever you can. Even if that means starving yourself or throwing up your food after you're done eating it, or popping dietting pills.

  It doesn't end there, either.

  You have to match up the color of your eyes to the color of eyeshadow that would best bring out the color. You have to find the right top for the kind of top to go with your body shape ('Are you slim, pear shaped, or curvy?'). You have to go to the store and buy a tshirt, just HOPING that it doesn't show up in TeenPeople on a 'What Not to Wear' list. And because beauty is based on perception, one person might say purple goes best with green eyes, and someone else might say blue. What are you to do then? Geez-o-pete, that's a catastrophe...You mean there isn't a set answer for these kinds of things??? Is it purple or blue, come on people!!!

  Did you know that in the early 1900s, it was considered beautiful to be of larger size? Yeah, that's right, LARGER size. Things changed in maybe the 20s, when you were supposed to have a sort of boyish figure. Then came Marilyn Monroe...Suddenly 'big' isn't so bad anymore. You have to have *****, like her. And in order to have *****, you have to have a little meat on your bones. You know what the standard is now? A mixture of both. It's 'beautiful' to not only have huge *****, but a really tiny body. Good lord, how are people supposed to keep up???

  You want to know something even more 'bizarre'? I was reading in a magazine the other day that in some country in Africa, it's considered beautiful to color your teeth black and put a big clay disc in your bottom lip. No lies.

  Want to know something else? Did you know that if a woman had a neck as small as Barbie's, it wouldn't be strong enough to hold up her neck? If she had a waist as small as Barbie's, it wouldn't be strong enough to support her huge chest? And if someone had feet as small as Barbie's they wouldn't be able to walk?

  The point of all this? Beauty is based on perception. If a guy doesn't like you for who you are, who cares? Find someone that does, but always be yourself. Someday, someone's going to come along that things you're the most gorgeous thing on the planet, no matter how much you weigh or what your hair looks like or what kind of clothes you wear. Why would you want to miss him because you're too busy barfing up your lunch for Mr. Arrogant???

  "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder."

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