Beautiful girl, there’s something you need to know.
People will try to contain you. To quiet you. To manage you.
People will tell you what to do and who to be and how to act, to the detriment of your own good.
You will be conditioned to hide your emotions, to carry the weight of others, and to lift others up at your own peril.
To say ‘sorry’ for no fault of your own.
Men will call you pretty when you smile, and women will call you fat when you show your skin.
Ads will tell you to eat more and social media will tell you to not eat at all.
People will convince you that sex is the same as love, and that happiness is just a man away.
Beautiful girl, do not listen.
The only weight you need to watch is the weight of your self-worth.
The only feelings unworthy of you are the feelings of not belonging or deserving of a good life.
The only skin you must hide is the thinly veiled belief that only some women can look or act a certain way.
The only voice that is allowed to interrupt your own is that of your inner child.
And you do not deserve to be hurt by anyone, including (and especially) by you.
Because, beautiful girl, that inner child will remain with you your whole life, even as you drink and eat and try to purge it out.
Even as the partners come and go, as friends ebb and flow, and as your body shifts and settles like the miracle that it is.
And it will take far too long until you realize that voice — that dedicated voice that has been with you since the beginning — is the only one that matters.
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