This is for all the girls that go to sleep at night hoping and praying that they won’t wake up in the morning. To the girls that have to fight their mind every day as they face reality. This is for everyone who puts up a fake smile as they go through the motions of life but are actually crying inside. To the women who take extreme measures to change who they are in hopes that they might finally be accepted and loved.

This is for all the girls who believe that they are not good enough just the way they are.

You are enough. You are more than enough.

You do not have to change how you are just to please someone out there. You are worthy of love and life no matter what. You are more than the size of your jeans. You are not defined by your GPA or MCAT score. You are more important than the number of Instagram likes and twitter followers you have. The calories you eat and miles you run do not determine your future. You are so much more than these insignificant measurements that our society convinces us control our lives.

Life should not be about pleasing others. Life is about finding who we really are and learning to love ourselves for that.

Life is about being able to wake up in the morning and remind yourself that you are strong and brave and that each day you are growing into an ever-changing, beautiful person.

It is wearing a new crop-top you bought without following the dangerous “6 days to a 6-pack” diet and still feeling confident. Life is studying what you want in college and taking classes that genuinely interest you, even if it’s not the path that your parents planned out for you when you were five years old.

Fear of not being the perfect shape or number should not control our lives. There are adventures out there waiting to be had. There are friends that are waiting for you to come into their life. There are opportunities to be experienced and things to learn and places to go. There is a life out there that is waiting to be lived.