Her Broken Mirror
Zina KHALIFE, Terminale
She used to cry herself to sleep every night, with nothing on her mind but an idea of never being enough. She was sick of herself, couldn’t stop dreaming about how flawless her life would’ve been without all these imperfections. Her mind was her own worst enemy, the only source of toxicity in her thinking. Always harshly judging herself, she used to spend days contemplating sculpted unrealistic figures, scrolling through her Instagram, switching to TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, or even cover girls magazines, slowly tearing herself apart. She had shattered her heart fantasizing about a life where she looked strategically perfect: a glossy tanned skin, a sunrise golden hair, velvety eyelashes emphasizing her rapture blue eyes, a dainty straight nose, shiny halo-white teeth, an hourglass-shaped waist, along with many more society clichés. Waking up from the illusion, looking in the mirror for the millionth time today, made her eat herself alive. “ Nobody thinks I’m pretty, mom.” she said and sobbed her heart out right after. It took her quite a time to get through these uncountable breakdowns, this rough dark mindset pushing this constant desire of being “a good looking girl”. It took her quite a time to realize that beauty standards pressured by society are nothing but delusional. It took her quite some time to understand how cruel she was to herself, hating every slight detail that was a part of her.
Little did she know that she belonged to 70% of teenage girls worldwide, growing up self-consciously.
Nowadays, genuinely accepting yourself requires going through this enormous roller coaster of emotions, and that represents a huge issue. Isn’t that shameful, to keep on setting brutal criteria for beauty, convincing ourselves on how that’s all its matters? Imagine all these poor young women growing up in such a neglected environment where we only support whoever fits in these standards. There should be no definition of beauty. Not fitting in certain physical standards made up by misconceptions does not mean you’re not enough: you are beautiful no matter what.
