15 Things That Girls Who Don’t Look Like Kim Kardashian Understand
By Kim Quindlen
Unless you’re dead, you’ve probably heard all about Kim Kardashian’s latest magazine cover, which involves a photo of her bare behind for Paper Magazine. This isn’t the first time that Kim’s been in the media for her famous curves, and it won’t be the last. She’s made a living out of her figure and her beauty, and she’s created an impossible standard for the rest of us.
Though my body is less like that of Kim Kardashian and more like that of my little brother when he was 11, there’s a lot of useful things I’ve learned from not being perfect. Here are 15 things that girls who don’t look like Kim Kardashian know to be true.
1. It’s much sexier to be interesting than it is to be physically flawless.
2. Beauty can only take you so far.
3. There are ways to feel validated without having to take your clothes off.
4. Anyone can look good naked if there’s a person off-camera assigned to dump oil all over you every 5 seconds.
5. Having every inch of you look perfect 24/7 is impossible and boring.
6. The ultimate end result of achieving physical perfection is apparently being married to Kanye West… so it’s pretty much the opposite of worth it.
7. You can make money by letting people take photos of your butt, but you can also make money by doing pretty much anything else.
8. It’s flattering when someone finds you attractive, but physical attraction can only take a relationship so far.
9. If you can’t balance a champagne glass on your ass, it’s also perfectly acceptable to hold it in your hand.
10. You have no control over your beauty fading, but you do have control over your talents, your mind, your career, your relationships, and tons of other things that are way more important than beauty.
11. If you want to preserve your beauty, you can have an expensive doctor shove Botox in your face. If you want to preserve your mind, you can just open a book.
12. It’s okay to upload an Instagram photo of something that isn’t one of your body parts.
13. The only person whose validation you need is your own.
14. Being pretty is fun. But it’s even more fun to be smart, clever, funny, talented, well-read, or compassionate.
15. You don’t have to choose between being attractive and having self-respect. They aren’t mutually exclusive.