There is nothing that can get me going like discussions about the destructive self image most teenagers have today. Every country, every state, every town, every family. It sickens me how this can be so widespread, and still we hush it down, hide it, and ignore the hate people feel against their bodies.

I can easily admit that I have spent hour after hour staring at myself and pointing out all the errors I see. Most of them having to do with the amount of fat on my body, but it has also gone to the extent to hating physical characteristics I can do nothing about. Why would I do this? Because society tells me to. 

Society explains it as a general part of being a teenager, just hating yourself a little bit. I can not, and will not, accept this. To be able to perform at peak, we need to be able to focus on things that are true. I am 100% sure that not one of those errors you see have been identified by the people who matter in your life. 

I do not posses the power to change society, but I will do everything in my power to change your image if yourself. I make a point if complimenting my friends every day. I do not care if they grow tired if it. Sure, it might not mean as much to you when I tell you you are beautiful for the 457 time, as if it is told to you by someone who rarely says it. But that is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you hear it everyday. You are beautiful! I do not care who you are, or what you look like, you are beautiful. 

Thoughts that have passed through my mind - My counter-thoughts:

• You have way too much fat on your stomach. - I am healthy, nowhere near fat.

• Your legs are as thick as logs. - My long, strong legs carry me kilometer after kilometer on the journeys of my life.

• My arms are fat. - Without my arms I could not do everything I love, they aid me more than I can imagine.

• I am ugly, how could anyone ever love me? - Take another look, let your hair down, put a smile on your lips, and try to tell yourself that you are ugly now. I am not ugly.

If you are unhappy with inherited physical features, like your nose, your hands, your eyes, or whatever else your brain and society might encourage you to hate, I will ask you this; is it not the most beautiful thing that your body shows the beauty of other people in you? If you have your dads hands, even though they are big, is it not beautiful that your hands can remind you of the safety you felt as a child, holding his? You have your mothers body-shape, is it not amazing that your  body will be able to perform what hers has in the past?

If I have learnt anything this year, it is to truly appreciate myself. I am amazed of what my body can do if I just ask and work for it. I am so strong! What I am most proud of is, no one is ever going to look like me. Why would I want to change my body, when I can just change my mindset?

If you ask my parents they can probably tell you that I was an extremely self-critical individual. That was just 10 months ago. I am not telling you that I love every square millimeter of my body, but why should I care about what my brain tells me I should hate, when my heart every day convinces me of how beautiful and strong I am.