Unique

• Arienna Grebert, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

Concealed by a mask, covering up her true, eternal beauty she stands. Secretly alone. Too scared to show her face, because everyone else is hiding too, cowering behind a curtain identical to everyone else’s.
Her skin colour is tinted an unnatural purple above the eyes, and red at the lips. A pink glow is plastered onto her cheeks, and she has glued on long, black eyelashes. Her dyed blonde hair has been straightened so that she looks exactly like every other girl in the room. She is as real as a Barbie doll, or a mannequin in a shop. Her clothing may be up to date, but she has no feelings, nothing unique.
Beneath the makeup there is a completely different person. A real life girl with a personality. Marks that represent who she is. Unique ideas that make her… her! Her purpose is not to isolate herself from everyone else, but to make in impact only she can make.
She won’t change until she accepts she is beautiful. When she changes her perspective, she will no longer need to change herself. She needs to step out from behind the curtain and dance. Not a dance choreographed by someone else, but her dance- the steps she chooses herself.
The dance felt by the heart is the loveliest of all. And the more people who dance it, the happier it gets. But the dance is easiest to perform when other people have pulled away the curtains too. So help someone dance, and pull away the curtain that is confining you.