This is a letter to a girl who is not me. She is not me because I am going to say to her all the things I cannot say to myself. This is a girl who has 3 kids or 1 kid or 6 kids or no kids.
You are wonderfully imperfect and beautifully created. You look in the mirror and you see where your jeans don't fit you like the mannequin in the store, or your shirt pulls a little too tight where you'd like it to fall loose. You look in the mirror and see the things you don't love about yourself. You look in the magazine or on the tv or on the computer or out your front window and see images of women who are more perfect than you. You read on a blog or in a Christian self-help book or in an article about a Hollywood actress about how to lose weight so other people will like you better.
Well they won't like you better when your jeans fit like a mannequin, because they love you now. They love your smile and how you laugh at awkward things. They love your passion about life and your quirky perspective. They love to share life with you when you are sad or happy or angry or tired.
So, damn Hollywood and all the pictures they put into your head about what it means to be a woman. Damn the articles about the Hollywood actress who "takes time for herself" to work out and eat right everyday, when that day includes leaving the kids with a well-paid nanny and going to drink her green juice and spending 3 hours with her personal trainer. Damn the tabloids who take unflattering pictures of famous women on the beach in order to make fun of them and in the process make fun of you.
You are wonderfully imperfect and beautifully created. Go ahead and run 5 miles and then congratulate yourself for the amazing things your body can do. Do not let the Hollywood messages about perfection let you judge yourself or anyone else by a standard we cannot meet. You are fiercely loved and uniquely gifted. You were not put on this earth to be a picture in a magazine. You were put on this earth to change it. Now go do it.
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