Battling Insecurities

I wish I  could  tie  you  up  in  my  shoes  /  Make  you  feel  unpretty  too  /  I  was  told  I  was  beautiful  /  What  does  that  mean  to  you .  

 
 I remember being 14 when I first heard the lyrics to this song.  I was young, naïve and extremely insecure. Unpretty is exactly how I often felt and I'm sure many, many teenage girls have felt this way at some point in their lives.  What causes these insecurities? There are different causes but the most prominent one in my opinion is society's conception of beauty.  Society tells young girls that they have to look a certain way to be considered beautiful.  They give young girls these unrealistic beauty expectations.  It pisses me off.  The main source of my insecurities were my teeth.  I had a gap between my teeth and a huge overbite.  I have braces now but looking back my teeth were pretty cool.  Anyway, this blog post will be a few tips to become more confident. Now, I don't expect anyone's life to change because of one blog post.  I have been working on becoming more confident for about 2 years now and I'm still not as confident as I want to be.  This blog post will simply give you something to think about.  Something to get you started on your journey to a confident lifestyle.


Tip #1:  Act confident.  When you walk, keep your head up high, your chin up and don't forget to smile! When you walk, have some sass in your walk.  Remember: You're a freaking boss so act like it.  Don't be that person who's always complaining about their looks. You know that one person who's always like "OMG!! I look so ugly!" and you know they're just fishing for compliments? Please don't be that person.  Even when you're having a bad hair day, don't complain about it.  (I am speaking from experience.  There was a time, I used to complain about everything but now I stop myself)


Tip #2: Remind yourself how awesome you are. Every day.  At the beginning of this year, I was going through some tough times and I was feeling really down on myself. I was going through instagram and I saw this page of inspirational quotes and I thought "How cool would it be to have my own set of inspirational quotes that I can look at everyday?" So I googled inspirational quotes said by my favorite famous people. (i.e J. Cole, John Green, Eminem, Tupac, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou , Bobby Shmurda (lol the last one was a joke)) and I wrote them on pieces of paper and taped them all over my wall.  On my mirror I had a quote by J. Cole and one by Eminem.  I had "Love yourself, girl, or nobody will" from Crooked Smile (J. Cole) and "Don't let no one tell you ain't beautiful" from Beautiful (Eminem). My personal favorite was a quote from the movie the Help. It said, "You is beautiful, you is kind, you is important." You don't have to write quotes.  You can put a reminder on your phone or something.  You can surround yourself with people who remind you of both your inner and outer beauty everyday.

Tip #3: Don't become a slave to makeup.  I love makeup and I wan to give a shoutout to whoever invented it.  However, sometimes girls tend to depend on makeup too much. (Once again, I am speaking from experience) I was allowed to wear makeup when I turned 16. (I was raised in a strict Haitian Christian household lol) and once I discovered how much it transformed me, I started forcing it.  I would walk around looking like a raccoon every day.  I decided to stop this because I realized that I was becoming a slave to makeup.  I still wear makeup but I have stopped depending on it. I go on for days without it and I am still able to feel beautiful.  I challenge you to spend at least one day of school without wearing makeup.  It may seem hard at first but you can do it.



Tip #4: Embrace your flaws. Flaunt your freaking flaws.  My flaw was my teeth and I remember covering my mouth when I laughed or smiled.  Your flaws make you unique.  Your flaws make you you.  I have braces now but if my teeth were still they were I would flaunt them. Not hide them.


Tip #5: Don't put other people down in order to bring yourself up.  Trust me , it will not work.  This is pretty self explanatory.  I don't think I need to explain it.  I know people who are like this and I personally pity them. 

Tip #6: Stop stressing about what other people think.  This is your life. No one else is living this life for you. March to the beat of your own drums.

Tip #7: Realize that it's not just about what's on the outside.  It's about what's inside too.  I know.  You're probably rolling your eyes right now.  That's what I used to do when people told me this. But it's true.  Kanye West once said "The prettiest people say the ugliest things" and he has a point.  Inner beauty has more value than outer beauty because outer beauty can go away but inner beauty lasts forever.  (This is an original quote from me so if you ever use it, give me some credit , okay? Veronique Similien is the name)

So to wrap things up, everyone is beautiful.  The way I like to think of this is that Our Creator does not make any mistakes. If you don't believe in any creator you can think of it another way. If you have any additional tips, let me know and I will add it.  And the song from the beginning is called Unpretty and it's by my second favorite girl group TLC. My favorite is Destiny's Child if anyone cares. Au Revoir....




Here is a picture of the quotes on one side of my room. (Don't mind the One Direction poster.  I am no longer a huge fan but I can't bring myself to get rid of the poster for some reason)




Here is a link to the song unpretty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2gy1Evb1Kg

I also like the glee version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRaJkZ_Za3c


Here is the quote I was talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H50llsHm3k


And here is a picture of a cute puppy: