In case no one tells you today, you’re beautiful
You are beautiful.
Not because of your features, or your skin, or hair, or height, or weight or whatever you choose to wear.
It has nothing to do with how many wrinkles, rolls or even toes you have.
You’re beautiful because you’re one of a kind. A precious work of art. No one else is like you.
I think we often confuse what beauty is all about. We unconsciously buy into a narrow and superficial view of beauty, and then mercilessly compare ourselves to it. But true beauty — beauty that touches other people, stops them in their tracks, and endures — is deeper than that.
Ashton Kutcher has a wonderful quote about this:
“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful. And being generous. Everything else is crap. I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it.”
I love that, and I’d take it even one step further.
In the words of a great mind, of a slightly different background and era, Aristotle: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
The most magnetic, radiant people I know have this in common. They all look completely different, but they know who they are, and instead of trying to fit in and be more like anyone else, they aim to be fully and unabashedly themselves.
I’m very acquainted with feeling like a weirdo and wanting to fit in. But I keep seeing examples of folks who move toward what makes them different — recognizing, celebrating and building on their uniqueness rather than sweeping it under the rug — and that multiplies what they have to offer. It makes them shine.
I understand that this can feel uncomfortable. It’s an explicit suggestion to step out of the box, and then keep moving away. But knowing yourself and boldly leaning into raw, unfiltered you is rewarding, inspiring and magnetizing. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s striking.
So you do you.
Don’t play small. Don’t have a big head. Hold tight to kindness and compassion. You’ll light up the room.
I write this to coach myself and for my daughter, who at 2 years old, knows full self-expression well. She is missing a few toes, and she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever come across. I want her to grow up embodying that — from the inside out.