One of the most renowned paintings of all time is the Mona Lisa. She doesn’t have plump lips, big eyes or any other ‘modelesque’ features. Statues that stand in museums being admired all day have rolls, disproportions, muscles and none, thin and thick.

When the statues were made, they were the idea of beauty at the time, something that changes with the decades. The idea of beauty is always changing, but we can’t change ourselves along with it. Trends are mostly harmless to follow, but as far as looks, you might be striving for the impossible. What’s seen as ideal is always changing with culture and time.

“Art” is something appreciated for its beauty and power. There are many portraits that many people wouldn’t see as pretty, but it’s still art. No matter how you see yourself, you still are art. You have beauty and power in you.

If you go in an art museum, chances are high you will find a statue or painting mimicking the exact feature of yours you hate. Anything can be art in front of the right audience, and people are the subject of the most appreciated pieces, and we are art ourselves.

Grow yourself as a person inside and how you see yourself on the outside will start to grow to. Grow your soul and do things that make you happy and help you develop as a person. See what you have to offer to the world, your friends and yourself. Try new things. There’s more to life than high school and what people think of you. Don’t try to be someone else but instead make yourself something you are proud of. Making something you are proud of is the best feeling and that’s something that you can apply to yourself as well.

If you were painting something, you wouldn’t purposely sabotage it. In the same way, don’t do things you know will be bad for you. Don’t look at yourself as something to be critiqued but as something to be appreciated, and looked at with care and admiration, as you do art or your loved ones.

I know it’s easier said than done.

Take pictures of yourself, draw bodies that look like yours, dress up, admire yourself. Water the garden that is yourself and the beauty will shine from within.