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Dear reader,

        You might not know it, but you're beautiful. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you are absolutely brilliant. And I love you for that. I love you for being the person you are today. The person you are as you walk down the street, slide the backpack on your shoulder, and face the world--who is way too oblivious to your faltering smile. And I hope you realize how much you're worth to this earth. You are what makes it spin. If you disappeared, the earth would tilt at the sudden shift of emptiness.

        But you don't. You don't know this. All you know is that if your eyebrows are not perfectly plucked, or if you don't have a gap between your thighs, you are far from being beautiful. You are absolutely ugly. Disgusting. And if you can't make it on the football team because you're not fit enough, then you must be horrible at everything. And if you can't fit a size zero dress or jeans that hug you tight, you must be obese. You have to be obese. And if you can't make the girl you like smile, man, then you must have a horrible personality. And if you can't get a date because every girl thinks having braces is not attractive--who is to say the rest of you is? And those pills that you swallow down are not cutting away the fat, so you look in the mirror and go inside the bathroom and cry. Cry because the girl next door will never love you because you're disgusting. Cry because the guy who makes butterflies inside your stomach will never glance at you because you're hideous. Shake your head and claw at your hair because your own family is ashamed of you.

        But you aren't. You are not ugly. You are what makes me continue writing this letter. You are what makes me smile. You are what this world is searching for. You are a star in the sky, and yes, there are stars that shine brighter than others. But who is to say that you will never become a supernova? Do not let words of hatred and tainted "truth" get to you. There is no truth of ugliness. The truth is: don't become a blackhole. Don't let them get to you. Don't let them see your walls tearing down like a paper cut in half. I will get duct tape, glue, staples, and tape that paper back to one. In short, I just want you to know that--

        You're handsome. You're gorgeous.

        You are all beautiful.

Sincerely,

someone who knows you're beautiful.