By Editor’s note: This poem reflects the inner struggle we feel in a world where we have been told to look in the mirror and recognize ourselves as flawed. But what does it take to love ourselves? What does it take to see ourselves as beautiful? The exact same thing that makes us flawed.
She stares at her reflection,
The girl in the mirror stares back.
She doesn’t like what she sees:
She doesn’t like the thickness of her arms,
She doesn’t like the rounded appearance of her stomach,
She doesn’t like the marks that stretch along her thighs.
Her body protests against the void eating away at her insides,
She ignores it.
She wants to be beautiful.
She needs to be beautiful.
This is how she can be beautiful.