One day last month I was in the middle of working out, right in front of a mirror. As I jumped and moved, I kept looking at my stomach and arms. The way they jiggled. All I could see was the missing muscle I saw on the workout instructors. I had never felt worse than in that moment. I’d never felt so ugly. I just stood there and judged everything. My lack of abs, my round face, my full cheeks, my nose, my eyes, my boobs, my butt. Everything was off. My chest felt so dark and heavy and I hated it.

Then I super angrily thought, “God. This is such bullshit.” Why do I have to dislike how I looked? Why do I feel like I’m not perfect? “My face is too round” — what does that even fucking mean? And then I thought, “My body is so awesome. I’m literally jumping up and down and doing push ups and holding myself up — my body is so strong.” That led to so much more great thinking, like “I can do so many great things because of this body.”

Because it’s true, right? We’re all so fucking beautiful. Like, in every possible way. Not just because of how we look.

We only think we’re ugly because society defined a standard of beauty. That’s it. A standard that no one actually meets because no one is that fucking perfect.

You’re amazing, Emily. Maybe you don’t think you’re beautiful but I hope you know that you are so many other things.