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What Is Beautiful?
Beautiful is what we see on the front page of the cosmopolitan magazine
Size zero, tall, and thin
Spending endless hours in hair and makeup for one simple picture.
But it isn’t simple at all.
Nothing is
“Fake it till you make it” we are constantly hearing,
So we quickly forget what reality really is
Living our lives based solely on lies
But as long as people like what you have to say, it's okay right?
Beautiful is the girl who gets catcalled in the hallway with every step she takes
Feeling worse and worse about herself every single time it happens
Lowering her self esteem more than it already is
Where the senior boys harass the freshman girls,
And our teachers don’t do a single thing about it.
The same teachers that tell the girls to not show off their shoulders
Because it distracts the boys,
Even though the boys were never taught
to control themselves around us
or hold their tongue when we walk down the hall.
Beautiful is the girl in the bathroom, throwing up after a meal
because she wants to be just one size thinner
Just lose a few more pounds
We don't realize how much pain she’s in because
“She looks so good” and
“She is just so thin”
Hiding behind her baggy clothes
Like a monster in the closet waiting for the child to fall asleep.
You can see her bones right through her skin
Just like the skeleton hanging on the wall in science class.
Beautiful is skinny
You cannot be beautiful if you are not skinny
The boys won’t like you
You will not get asked to the school dance
The mean girls will pick at every insecurity you have
Trying to pretend as if it doesn’t hurt you
But it does
And they all know it too.
“Have you ever tried dieting”
“Maybe start a workout plan”
Hearing these phrases
Rips through your flesh like a speeding bullet
Until you can’t feel anything at all.
Can you define to me now,
What beautiful really is?
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