I wrote this for my best friend when she was being bullied. I wanted to share it with you guys. 

We've all had someone tell us "if you just be yourself, people will accept you". I've never heard a bigger lie in my life. 

I had never before had a problem being myself. In elementary school I played sports, I got amazing grades, I didn't care what kind of car my parents drove, or how big my house was. I had never been on a plane, never been to Hawaii. I liked to color, and to sing. I was always singing. I wanted everyone to know what my passions were. What I liked and what I did in my free time. That was important to me. And then I started seventh grade. Suddenly I was being told by my classmates, by my "friends", and by strangers, that my body wasn't the ideal body. That my house was to small, and my shoes were cheap and not cool. I didn't have the body that they thought I should have. But one thing that many people don't understand and don't realize, it's not always the boys who said that to me. We have been told so long that our bodies have to reach a certain requirement, that us girls are starting to believe it. I remember being told by one of my best friends "have you even hit puberty yet" when I asked her what she meant, when I asked her why she had asked me such a personal strange question, she replied "because you haven't gotten a butt yet, and you have no boobs". Suddenly, it wasn't my education that mattered. Grades weren't my priority. Singing became a hobby, and I had to hide it because nobody cared. Suddenly, it was my body that was important. Because it wasn't good enough. From then on, I watched my diet. I looked up tricks to make my boobs appear bigger. I bought the tightest of push up bras to really give me the appearance of some cleavage. I did squats, and lunges, and forget about homework because I had to work out. I had no time for that math homework. Suddenly my grades were dropping and my reputation was going downhill. Because now that I had been taught "my body is more important than my grades and my passions" I was a slut. I didn't everything they told me too. I followed society's rules. But now that I had actually done what they wanted and become who they thought I should be, I was doing it wrong. I was trying to hard. I was changing. I wasn't the same person. They told me my grades and my friends, my passions and my talents, my personality didn't matter. My body did, how many boys I dated, how many likes my photo got, that mattered. But now, now that I threw away my education and my goals, I still wasn't living up to their expectations. I didn't have an expensive car, or a big house with a pool, I don't have a hover board, a hot tub, 500 dollars in my pocket all the time. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, no matter what anyone, not just boys because girls can be just as bad sometimes worse, no matter what they tell you you need to do, you need to change, or you need to stop, it's never going to be good enough for them. So stick to your goals, keep your grades up, and find those friends that like singing and ice skating and being silly with you. Because in the long run, you're going to regret the choices other people made for you, and you're going to wish you had made your own decisions. 

We also need to remember, that yes some boys degrade us. And turn us into objects. But girls are the ones that pit us against one another. And we all need to stop following the unspoken rules about what we should look like and what we should do, and we should all support and build each other up, and learn to just be ourselves no matter who tells us not to. It's never going to be easy, but it will always be possible. I was really bored so I wrote this for you because this is how I feel, and I don't know if you ever feel like this but I love you and I hope you don't feel like this. You're perfect to me in every way and you shouldn't ever feel like you aren't good enough. ❤️❤️❤️