Beauty. What is it? Did you know in the 1700s a woman was considered beautiful if she was overweight because it meant she had enough money to eat well. Boy have the times changed. My dearest friends, welcome to the 21^st century where a woman is beautiful if she has enough money to inject herself with needles, coat her skin in products, and accentuate various body parts through plastic surgery. A beautiful woman is one who has enough “self-control” to starve herself. A beautiful woman doesn't even have pores on her face, let alone imperfections. And who tells us this? The media, and of course we listen. On average, we are bombarded with about 400 to 600 ads a day in which most, if not directly, at least indirectly shove not only the value of beauty down our throats, but the idea that beauty is value. Products say: Thinner, softer, smoother, sexier, better, prettier, hotter. The suffix -ER is regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adjectives. Comparative. No wonder suicide and depression rates are climbing each year. According to suicide.org, a teen takes his or her own life every 100 minutes. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Approximately 20 percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood, and between 10 to 15 percent suffer from symptoms at any one time. Girls are two times more likely to experience depression than boys. And what is the leading cause of depression? Low self-esteem. So if a girl is exposed to 400 to 600 ads a day, proving to her that there will always be someone more beautiful than she is, why wouldn't she have low self esteem. If a girl is constantly being compared to prettier girls, then why wouldn't she be depressed. If a female is told every day of her life, that her value lies in her beauty, than why wouldn't she feel inadequate, not good enough, ugly, not worth it. We are striving for an impossible degree of perfection. Because believe it or not, not even the girls in the magazines, look like the girls in the magazines. Airbrush, photo shop, make up. It's all fake and it is all literally impossible. The pictures in the media are edited to make a woman's face perfectly symmetrical as this is most pleasing to the eye. Well in the history of the world, rarely has any human being ever been born perfectly symmetrical. They drain our self esteem so that they can drain our wallets. They distort their faces in order to distort our sense of beauty. Well now it's our turn. It's our turn to regain our sense of reality. It's our turn to have our voices heard, to tell them that beauty isn't everything. It's our turn to tell them what beauty means. Beautiful is the girl who goes into surgery with a shaved head, fighting to keep her life. Because this surgery is more beautiful than a nose job or cheek lift. Beautiful is the girl who has imperfections that set her apart. Because being different is better than trying to be like the rest of them. Beautiful is the girl who stands up for what she believes in. Because standing for what's right, is better than walking down a runway. Society will continue to throw at you, a million different slogans of what beautiful is, but it's your turn to stop listening. Don't listen to them, listen to yourself because deep down there is a part of you that knows, that has always know, something. The truth. The truth that you are beautiful just the way you are. So stop caring if you're pretty or not. You will never be merely pretty, but you will be pretty kind, pretty smart, pretty hardworking, and pretty amazing. And if you ask me, I think that's pretty great.