Bullies are everywhere. No matter what age you are, where you come from, whether you're short or tall, thin or thick, young or old, there will always be someone in your life that wants to bring you down. It's the sad truth of this world. The other sad truth of this world is that people ignore bullying, just brush it off as 'kids being kids'. I can't stand that. It's like the saying 'sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me'. It's a lie. Bullying presentations at school can get old and boring. We've all been there before as they shepherd us into the gym or auditorium by the masses. They say the same things every time: 'if you see bullying report it' or 'you have to understand what it does to people', but we just ignore it. We just want to go home and sit on our computers, text on our cellphones. We want to remain blissfully ignorant. That doesn't work in a world like this anymore. Everyone is connected all the time, whether it's through a social networking site, or through text. It's even easier for bullies to reach people. Nobody wants to hear that, so we remain passive, shrugging it off and hoping that it will go away even though we know it won't. Bullying can affect someone for the rest of their lives. Those words that you barely even thought about as they flew out of your mouth? Those can haunt someone for the rest of his/her life. That isn't okay at all, and we need to recognize that it isn't just going to go away if we ignore it. We need to do something about this as soon as possible!
In addition to bullying comes the topic of self harm. There's a lot of argument about self harm. Some people claim that self harm is cowardly while others argue that it could be a person's only release. Either way, self harm is a serious issue in today's world. More and more we hear about kids who committed suicide, go to the hospital because of the several deep cuts in his/her arm, and even kids who are sent to psychiatric wards because of this issue. Self harm is not okay, and it is not okay to let someone continue to hurt themselves. If you or someone that you know self harms, take a look in the mirror, or tell that person to, and realize what you see. A human being with a lot of potential. You are beautiful no matter what.
Beauty. What does that word mean, defined by today's society? Long blond hair? Baby blue eyes? Cute lips and a button nose? Maybe not too short, but not too tall. The fact of the matter is that humans are imperfect beings. That is a straight up fact. Many girls look in the mirror every morning and think 'I'm just average'. That is a lie! It may sound cliche, but every single person out there is beautiful. Even the frizzy haired, geeky girl with the big glasses who doesn't talk to anyone. Sometimes, you just need to look a little deeper.
This isn't a problem for just girls, either. Boys have this problem all the time. You aren't a 'country boy'? You don't have abs? You're short? Then you aren't attractive. The fact of the matter is that every single person out there, even you reading this, is a wonderful and beautiful human being. Even if you're scarred, even if you have acne, even if you wear glasses or anything else, you are gorgeous. You just need to realize it. You need to realize that it's okay to feel beautiful. It's okay to be happy with who you are, even if society says that it isn't. Society is wrong. You are beautiful.