This is a world where people criticize, judge, shun and belittle others. Where stereotypes are the way things are supposed to happen. Being a girl, especially a young one is where it has the worst effect.

I know this because I myself have grown up in this awful, degrading, animalistic world. Women in this day and age are treated with about as much respect now as they were centuries ago.

Granted, we may be given more freedoms, but truthfully, it has little effect when you take the lack of respect into account. We are degraded, criticized, knocked down, mistreated, and misunderstood.

We aren’t good enough with no makeup, but when we put even the slightest bit on, it is considered “too much” and is labeled as ugly. We aren’t beautiful if we have a weight too close to the 200 pound mark, but if we are too thin, we are ugly.

Being a person, especially a girl in this era is hard. You are always “too” something. Too tall, too short, too fat, too skinny, too smart, too dumb, too good; all of these remarks are the height of hypocrisy.

When a girl feels beautiful, our society knocks her down. When a girl in our community decides to lose some weight, we make her feel bad, as if she should have considered it sooner, rather than simply supporting her. We are all guilty of belittling people, whether we know it or not, whether we mean to or not, I am willing to bet at some point in your life you said something negative to or about another person.

Girls have to try so hard in this world. Women are sexualized, they are seen for their bodies, rather than their brains. In this case, rather than the typical “Beauty lies in the body’s heart, not the body’s parts,” is reversed.

But this needs to change.

This world is not perfect. It isn’t beautiful. It isn’t good, but we can change that. Today it is hard to be original, because almost everything has been said or done, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve upon past attempts. Here, in this article, is where hate ends.

You need to be original, be yourself. You are smart, you are beautiful. No, you aren’t perfect. Neither is the prettiest girl at school. Neither am I, and neither is the person sitting next to you.

I am so sorry that this is the world that we live in. I am sorry that today, girls are caking on so much makeup that they don’t even look like themselves. They are starving themselves to be thin because thin is beautiful. I’m sorry that many girls end up in the hospital or dead due to self-inflicted malnutrition.

I’m sorry to any girls that have ever been in a bad relationship. For those girls who have been used, abused, and treated as though you were nothing but a toy, you are better than that. You are truly beautiful, you mean something to someone, and people do care. Keep your chin up.

I’m sorry to those who are left brokenhearted by a boy- or even a girl- who got what they needed from you and then left. I’m sorry that people have made you feel the need to prove yourself, to show people that you are beautiful.

So many girls try so hard just to be accepted. They try to fit themselves into that pair of skinny jeans that make them look so good, but the waistband digs into their stomach. They wear tight shirts and uncomfortable lingerie simply because it’s the new fashion trend. They starve themselves to be able to fit into that prom dress that everyone wants.

They do all of these things to be beautiful, but at night when all the makeup comes off, when they wear the comfortable clothes that they like, and their burned-straight hair goes back to its beautiful natural curls, they aren’t happy, they just aren’t.

By starving yourself, harming yourself, wearing uncomfortable clothes and drowning yourself in makeup, you are torturing yourself. The models on TV and in magazines, and on social media may be beautiful, but when you ask yourself why you can’t look that way, the answer is so simple. You can’t look like that because they can’t look like that. Nobody is that beautiful, and people who are that beautiful are used. Photoshop, plastic surgery, and Botox are what makes you look that way, and that is just destroying yourself.

Outer beauty may matter to others but truthfully it doesn’t matter in the end. When you die, your body decomposes and wastes away, but the memories that people have with you, will they still be beautiful? Yes, because they won’t care, because it doesn’t matter, nobody will remember you as “the fat girl” they will remember your name, your face, and your personality. So make yourself be someone they will remember, leave an impact on people.

I am not sorry to inform you that being yourself is the true definition of beauty. Many say it, and few mean it, but I do. I mean it. You are the only one who gets to choose who you are. It is being said that 2017 was the year of the woman, so why can’t 2018 be?

Too many people spread hate, and I refuse to be one of them. I know what it’s like. I’ve been judged, bullied, rumors have been spread about me, I’ve been called names, and left out. I have resorted to self-harm, I starved myself, I did my makeup the way other girls were, I did things to please others, I had people that didn’t mean anything liking me, it wasn’t worth it, so, I changed.

I realized that life is so much better than what people made it for me. I found happiness through my pain. Everything I am, everything I am doing, it is because it makes me happy, not anyone else. Not anymore. I wear what I want, I do my makeup the way I like it and I smile when I find something pleasing.

My point is, when you finally begin to do things for yourself, and stop caring what anyone else thinks, when you stop paying attention to how beautifully fake models are, when you finally come out of that bubble of what is and isn’t accepted by society. When you stop conforming to the standards of others rather than your own, you are going to be much happier.

Are you going to be 100% better? No.

Is it going to be easy? No.

If you are yourself, and you stay yourself in the long run, you will be much happier.

Again, I’m sorry that people don’t tell you this enough. I’m sorry our society is full of hypocrites, and I’m sorry that you haven’t been called beautiful yet today. So, I’m going to make up for that by telling you now.

You are strong, you are brave, you are independent, smart, funny, kind and absolutely beautiful. You are perfect in your own way, and you are not alone. If nobody else seems to, I care.

Keep your chin up, princess, your tiara might fall off. You’re going to be okay. Just Breathe.

Let’s make 2018 the year of the woman again by showing people that we are more than what they see us as. Let’s make a difference in this world. Starting with you.