Title: Beauty
Word Count: 512
Rating: G
Authors Notes: My rebellion to the beauty standard

Look at me. What do you see? A tall plain girl who's not completely unfortunate looking but not someone you'd grace with a second glance. Or as most inarticulate, blunt people say, ugly.

Well if you were going to say that about me I'd like to ask you one question. What is beautiful? How is it defined? Can it be defined? Do you have to possess flawless skin, glossy hair and fit into a size zero pair of jeans? If that's beauty, I'd rather be ugly.

Can you tell I'm lying. Yes of course it sounds like the right thing to say, but hey I'm a sixteen year old girl. I watch T.V. I read magazines. I go to high school, which for those of you who don't know is one of the tale-tell ways to figure out just how unfortunate looking you are. Why you ask? Because people are allowed to just walking around and voicing their opinions not matter how inappropriate, crude, or ignorant those opinions may be.

It makes me angry when I hear people talking about how ugly someone else is. Since I'm female I tend to notice it more when it comes from guys. Example. I know a woman who lost a lot of weight. She was pretty before but now she's what I call commercially pretty, meaning that she now exemplifies media's version of beauty. When ever this woman is mentioned around guys, I hear basically the same thing every time. “She used to be fat but now she's hot” I'll just let the superficiality of that sink in for a moment.

Girls aren't immune to this either. They feel the need to degrade their fellow woman to make themselves feel prettier, because it's the easiest way to degrade someone. It's the simplest form of power and its pathetic that some people can be so petty.

Some of you are probably still looking at me and thinking ‘she's ugly. I'm way prettier than her' or you're thinking ‘she's just pissed because she's ugly'. Well some say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I say ugly is in the mind of the ignorant.

And you know what I may not be beautiful, but I am smart. Beauty lasts 50 years if your lucky. Intellect spans lifetimes. One day you'll be old and wrinkled, just another elderly woman who used to be beautiful. Who sits around recounting old boyfriends she had in high school, junior high and college, having nothing more to talk about than past loves and past conquests.

But I will always have something to talk about. I may be an outcast now because no one understands me But one day when everyone grows up and finds that beauty fades, I will be desirable.

And you know what? I can wait. Savor what you have now because your glory days are numbered while mine are ahead of me and they stretch as far as the eye can see. Because I took the chance to learn something while you were busy fixing your eye liner.