Hola, once again, Amy here.

I’d like to publicly thank the people who responded to my Instagram poll/questionnaire about what my next post should be about. I have your topics in mind, but I feel like I needed to talk about this asap since I’ve seen this issue around a lot lately.

BTW, this post started without a title– I’m sure I’ll make one up when I finish. Also, I know I said I was going to keep my posts short and sweet but I think I’ll make an exception this time.

Let’s talk about the meaning of beautiful, or at least, the meaning it has been given nowadays. Honestly, this is a constant battle I have to fight with most days. We live in a world that is freaking exposed to beauty standards 24/7 with Instagram, TikTok, etc., around. We see “beautiful faces,” big lips, perfect noses, amazing jaw-lines, well-sculptured bodies, long silk hair, and whatnot. And I bet we’re like “dang!” and grab all your beauty products and try to recreate those looks.

Hey! there’s nothing wrong with that, we all like to give ourselves some love and feel “beautiful,” but you know what I THINK is wrong? That behind those looks, there are hundreds of surgeries, monthly injections, and tons of photoshop fixes– but those people, or so-called influencers, do not admit to any of these things. So this really creates a problem for us, the audience, trying to reach this perfect image that is realistically impossible to reach without going through surgical procedures or the other things I mentioned.

Again, nothing against people that have gone through plastic surgeries but at least, admit it DAMN IT! because all these women are trying so hard to achieve those looks and the sad part is that they think it’ll happen just by following your “beauty hacks.”

All this to ask: where do we leave our inner beauty? our intellect? Is this how we honor those who tirelessly fought for our rights so we can vote? so we can get a proper school education? Do you know that there are still women fighting to get us, women, the same pay as men? Like, it’s f*c*ing 2020 and we shouldn’t be fighting for things such as equal pay but we still do and I strongly think that one of the reasons is that we, women, are not honest with each other. We continuously fight each other over who looks better or who dresses better or stupid crap like that (please, ignore my cursing but writing about this makes me angry). We are becoming more and more CONSUMERS than never before instead of becoming product creators, business owners, etc.

Go and take a good look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself: is this the person you want to be? Do you have a purpose other than competing against other women? Can I be more transparent with myself so that I can reflect my true self to others? Regardless of your religion, let me tell you this: we come to this world with a purpose and certainly, our purpose has nothing to do with looking physically better than the rest. Our bodies are just our medium to be physically present in this world but what really matters is that that we carry within– so let’s do something to take care of our inner beauty and shine our lights on others. Let’s have some respect for our bodies, let’s be aware that our bodies, thin, thick or w.e form, is the apparatus (yes, apparatus) that supports us every freaking day. Let’s have some real appreciation and accept it just the way it is. I don’t think you’ll ever realize how important each part of your body is until you go through, let’s say, a medical surgery, or something that impacts a part of your body so heavily that you begin to actually value it. See the scars on my chest? Fuck, that was the worst experience of my life. When I was 18, for some stupid reason, I wanted to get a breast implant but thank goodness my parents talk me out of it (I didn’t even insist). 8 years later, ironically, I had to go through a surgery that removed some stuff from my breast. While I was in the operating room, I started thinking about how lucky I am to have the body I have because it allowed me to continue on with my life– regardless of my shape, color, my scars, my stretch marks. From my personal experience, please ladies, appreciate your body and ‘start treating your brain like a muscle & exercise it.’