How to Be Fierce

I have noticed recently how reluctant people are to claim their own beauty. I know some unbelievably good looking folks, y'all, and they all have one thing in common:

They see what's "wrong" with them and not what's right with them.

They can make long, detailed lists of the parts of themselves that they'd hack off, plump up, paralyze, remove, adjust.

It's so sad.  But every single person I know has this list. This list of "here are all of the things that are not right about how I look" -- and I'm not 100% sure but I feel VERY confident when I say that when most of us look in the mirror? That's what we see. All of the things that are wrong. All of the things we hate.

And we -- all of us -- need to STOP.

Being beautiful (or handsome, or whatever) doesn't start with what other people see when they look at you. It starts with what YOU see when you look at you.

So be freaking fierce. March yourself into the bathroom and take a good long look in the mirror. Really look at yourself. Notice all of the things that make you unique and amazing and smoking hot.  Announce "I am freaking FIERCE."

Go ahead, I'll wait.

...

Oh good, you're back.

Was that hard for you? I bet it was. I bet you wanted to see all of the things that you think should be fixed -- like your unbalanced eyebrows and the giggle lines (so much more fun than laugh lines) and the not perfectly white teeth.

Here's the thing though: I think you should see those. I think you should see them and you should LOVE them because they're part of what make you unbelievably amazing and adorable. March your (super cute) tushie back into the bathroom and look again. LOVE your crooked eyebrows! Enjoy those lines you earned from laughing until your belly hurt! Appreciate the fact no one who is not airbrushed has perfectly white teeth! That's your face and it is amazingly attractive.

Go on. Get in there.

...

Back again. Nice.

Now. Know this: you are unique and perfectly wonderfully you and that makes you so very, very beautiful. You might have scars. You might have more weight than you think you should or less weight than you think you should. Maybe you wish some things about your body could be changed.

You can change them if you want. You do you.

But don't you go on thinking for one single, solitary instant that the things you don't like keep you from being astonishingly beautiful. Don't you EVER believe that. Not for one more instant.

Because you are beautiful. Believe it. Carry yourself with that knowledge. Hold your head high and know that whoever sees you is beholding someone who is fierce and who is proud and who deserves to be treated well because you do.

You're a rock star.

Own it.