Beauty isn't everything. Especially not to Bella Garcia, a 15-year-old girl who learned this lesson at a what could be considered a young age.
"True beauty is from within. Not how tall and skinny you are or how soft and straight your hair is. It's about the type of person you are, and I'm happy that I have come to learn that myself."
However, Bella Garcia wasn't always so positive when it came to her body. She went through the challenges of growing up within a society that valued perfection. Most of her challenges came from how media represents teen girls and the part was how people she knew, her family and friends, talked to her when it came to her body.
"I was always the chubby one. My mom kept saying it was baby fat, trying to keep myself positive about it but I knew it was a lie. When my friends would talk about my weight I would laugh with them. I turned it into a joke so no one would make fun of me... I thought it was helping, but in reality I just kept hurting myself."
When a word is repeated over, and over again, it becomes to feel true. It becomes a part of you. And it certainly does not help when your family mentions it many times.
"Whenever I was meeting with my elderly relatives, they would always call me "gorda" which is Spanish for fat. I would usually brush it off but I knew deep down it hurt." Bella would try to tell her family how those comments made her feel, however she felt they never really understood.
"My mom would tell me to brush it off, to ignore what they are saying... I tried but it never really worked. I would breakdown. That's how I started falling into a pit of self-hatred and it seemed like there were no escapes."
That was until things turned for the better.
"I started listening to K-POP. There are many groups that make music for this genre but there is one particular group that had moved me the most, BTS."
BTS is a famous K-POP group in South Korea consisting of seven members. They differ from many popular artists from today by making songs about self-love and never giving up on your dreams.
"I listened to there songs. They were so moving, every once and a while certain songs would pop up and I would just cry. Of course, while becoming a fan of K-POP I was ridiculed by everyone who disliked it. Thats when I learned not to worry about others peoples opinion because they will always have something negative to say whether it's about you or about something you love. There is always negativity."
That wasn't the only thing Bella learned from the K-POP group.
"Once I became a fan, after looking at all their translated lyrics, I realized I needed to make a change. I was worthy. I also wouldn't be the first person to learn to love themselves from BTS."
Once gaining the motivation she never had before, she decided she needed to make a change about the way herself and the only way that was going to happen was with her.
" I started by thinking positive thoughts about myself. Whenever I tried on new clothes, I would always think of something negative however, every time I had a bad thought, I would prove that it was a lie... I had to keep in mind that these "teen" girls were edited into perfection. I am human and it would be impossible for me to ever look like that. Not even with all the plastic surgery can change who I really am."
Bella has stated numerous times that the journey to self-love is not easy and will most likely not happen over night. Even her own journey isn't complete.
"I can say that I have improved and I am more optimistic about myself than I was before. I am more determined about not forgetting that I am loved by others and most importantly that I am loved by myself."
Despite still learning the aspects of self-love, Bella wants to help other teens and guide them into loving themselves. According to Bella, society and media representation is one of the main issues as to why teens are suffering with low-self esteem. That teens harm themselves in order to become perfect and its an issue that hasn't been seriously addressed.
"Society needs to step up in a lot of different ways. As a diverse society, we need to become more accepting of others, no matter their shape, size, color. In the end, we are all human and we live on the same planet. It's pointless to bring each other down."
"My mom would tell me to brush it off, to ignore what they are saying... I tried but it never really worked. I would breakdown. That's how I started falling into a pit of self-hatred and it seemed like there were no escapes."
That was until things turned for the better.
"I started listening to K-POP. There are many groups that make music for this genre but there is one particular group that had moved me the most, BTS."
BTS is a famous K-POP group in South Korea consisting of seven members. They differ from many popular artists from today by making songs about self-love and never giving up on your dreams.
"I listened to there songs. They were so moving, every once and a while certain songs would pop up and I would just cry. Of course, while becoming a fan of K-POP I was ridiculed by everyone who disliked it. Thats when I learned not to worry about others peoples opinion because they will always have something negative to say whether it's about you or about something you love. There is always negativity."
That wasn't the only thing Bella learned from the K-POP group.
"Once I became a fan, after looking at all their translated lyrics, I realized I needed to make a change. I was worthy. I also wouldn't be the first person to learn to love themselves from BTS."
Once gaining the motivation she never had before, she decided she needed to make a change about the way herself and the only way that was going to happen was with her.
" I started by thinking positive thoughts about myself. Whenever I tried on new clothes, I would always think of something negative however, every time I had a bad thought, I would prove that it was a lie... I had to keep in mind that these "teen" girls were edited into perfection. I am human and it would be impossible for me to ever look like that. Not even with all the plastic surgery can change who I really am."
Bella has stated numerous times that the journey to self-love is not easy and will most likely not happen over night. Even her own journey isn't complete.
"I can say that I have improved and I am more optimistic about myself than I was before. I am more determined about not forgetting that I am loved by others and most importantly that I am loved by myself."
Despite still learning the aspects of self-love, Bella wants to help other teens and guide them into loving themselves. According to Bella, society and media representation is one of the main issues as to why teens are suffering with low-self esteem. That teens harm themselves in order to become perfect and its an issue that hasn't been seriously addressed.
"Society needs to step up in a lot of different ways. As a diverse society, we need to become more accepting of others, no matter their shape, size, color. In the end, we are all human and we live on the same planet. It's pointless to bring each other down."
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