List Of Perfection

• Tameka Frith, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

Beauty, it is a strange thing isn’t it. ‘Everyone has their own ideas of beauty’ at least that’s what lots of people say, yet one look at a model in the magazine or on Instagram and that is beauty to you, but all those people are the same or they adjust themselves with photoshop all just trying to match the list. Skinny, no pimples, small nose, beautiful blonde or brown hair, no freckles, no illnesses ever, this is the list of perfection, and that’s only the half of it. But if you don’t have one of those then you are put into a category of uncertainty labelled ‘ugly’, such a used word isn’t it? But honestly does ugliness even exist, or is it just a word someone came up with. What about beauty is it true or at least the idea of it.
People seem to be certain to the perfection list and the opposite being the damaged list. Another nasty word ‘damaged’ all these words can bring you down, an entire body, an entire human brought down by a couple of words, one word. So why did we make that word, maybe it wasn’t meant to hurt, the damaged list, maybe all those qualities ARE beauty, maybe everything is beauty. Fat or thin you’re beautiful, white or black you’re beautiful, clear skin or acne you’re beautiful, scars or no scars you’re beautiful. What if what we think is wrong, beauty is you believing in yourself and the way you look, the XL size is just XB extra beauty, but we don’t think this because of that word ‘ugly’ it hurts our thoughts, our confidence and shuts them down. Maybe this gift we were given was meant for good but we had a way to turn it evil.
Things like Instagram are ruining people’s thoughts about themselves and their perceptions of beauty, and sadly they overpower the freedom of loving anything. Their ‘ideas’ of beauty don’t match mine, that everyone should be happy as they are because there is no prettier, there is no uglier, there is no perfection, and there is no damaged. Humans are humans, you shouldn’t have to be told you’re beautiful because that is for you to decide. We weren’t made in sections of ugly and pretty or smart and stupid, we made those columns so why can’t we remove them from our minds of thinking and just be happy.
That really is beauty. It’s easy to tell someone they are beautiful or they are ugly but the hard part is accepting that there is no ugly and that everyone and everything is beautiful including you and if you accept that then you will love yourself and you will be happy.
You don’t have to label everything but if you need help, I have three words for you:
Acceptance, Love and Happiness.