To My Fellow Women: You Don’t Have To Choose Between Being Pretty And Being Smart

When I was in high school, I met this girl who was undeniably beautiful. She had a blonde hair and a perfectly curved body. She wore dresses and skirts. While I was the girl who had a low self-esteem, I wore lousy shirts and tight jeans, and I hardly impressed any guy. But even if we’re total opposites, we became best friends. She was into makeup while I was into books. She always received compliments about how beautiful she was, while I received compliments about my grades.

Growing up together, she was always labeled as the “pretty” one, and I was labeled as the “smart” one. I always thought that being pretty was far more important than being smart. And because of that, I became jealous of her. I wanted to be pretty too. But little did I know that she was jealous of me too. She wanted to be smart, she wanted to have high grades. While I was struggling to be pretty like her, she was struggling to be smart like me.

This is the time that I realized that I don’t have to choose between being smart and being pretty because I can be both. That none is more valuable than the other. Yes, having a pretty face is a good thing, but being smart is pretty too.

Society made us believe that pretty girls are dumb, while smart girls are nerds. They’re wrong. Because someone’s beauty should not to based on how smart or capable they are. Being pretty is not just having a pretty face. Your heart, character, mind, and soul say so much more than what your face could ever say. Beauty is from the inside out. Beauty is confidence. Remember that we are all beautiful in our own unique ways.

If you are once told that you can’t be both pretty and smart, or if you are struggling on either being pretty or being smart, remember this—you don’t have to choose between the two because you can be both. It doesn’t have to be an either/or decision. You can be best of both worlds. Never believe to those who make you believe otherwise. Just because you’re beautiful doesn’t mean you can’t be smart. And just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can’t be beautiful at the same time. You can get straight As and have a gorgeous face. You can be the stunning girl at the bar who is also a successful lawyer. You can be the campus crush and be the class president too.

There shouldn’t have to be a decision to choose to be either smart or be pretty because we can be both.