And You Love Yourself
Plastic princess shoes clank as you run down the hall
The world is magic and pink is the only color in your rainbow
Lipstick smears from cheek to cheek
Your little hands try their best to copy your older sisters’
You shine when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror
At 3 you love yourself
You start school and your world gets bigger
You listen when the older girls talk about what’s wrong with their bodies
One day a boy pushes you on the playground because he doesn’t like your hair
Your mom gets ready and although she’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen
You catch the disappointment in her eyes when she looks in the mirror
At 11 you question yourself
The world keeps growing and hate gets louder
You have to be skinny but also curvy
Smart but not intimidating
Cute and silly but also sexy and mysterious
Your boyfriend loves you but he tells you you’ll never be enough
So you try a new guy and another but its all the same
One thinks you’re fat anther thinks you’re boring another that your personality is too big
Too much or not enough
At 16 you want to change yourself
You’re constantly flooded with the latest fads
About how to have the best beach body
Or how to make yourself more desirable in five easy steps
Or how to perfectly contour your face
The radio plays songs about butts
And no one cares how your eyes twinkle when you step into the sun
The size of your jeans is all wrong
And voices of the world are screaming inside your head making you sick
You finally meet a boy who you lose yourself in
You become everything he ever wanted
He picks out your clothes and the way you do your hair
He tells you that you’re beautiful
But he doesn’t even see you he only sees the you he created
After a while he’s bored with his creation and he asks you to be original
You stare back at him blankly
The world erased your original
At 19 you want to give up on yourself
But you don’t
You ditch the boy and the magazines
And give your middle finger to the world because you’re over it
You’re done with the hate
You decide to stare in the mirror and damn the lies to hell
You’re beautiful and you’re angry
You see hate ruining the lives of girls all around
You watch the world erase originality
NO MORE
At 21 you remember the little girl with lipstick smears and plastic shoes
You remember her, and you love her
Your eyes still twinkle when you step into the sun
You are unapologetically original
And you love yourself
