All around the world, girls of all colors, sizes, and ages have one thing in common. They all turn to social media for entertainment. Although this world of hashtags and pictures can be very amusing and a great pastime, it also has a downside. A downside that every teenage girl has faced and experienced. 

As a fifteen year old girl, my phone is always on, I always take a peek at my most recent instagram notification or scroll through tiktok for what seems like five minutes but ends up to be an hour. The truth is, social media is the best way to have a break, it’s how I spend my “me-time”. And although I do get many laughs and smiles out of that time I scroll through these apps, there is a part of me that wishes I could stop. But I can’t. Social media seriously damages your mental health. We all know it and believe it, but we can’t seem to understand it. One study shows that "On any given day, American teenagers (13- to 18-year-olds) average about nine hours of entertainment media use.” That’s nine hours of looking at videos or pictures of other people, forcing us to compare ourselves to these influencers.

Teenagers, especially teenage girls, feel the need to judge themselves wherever they see a model posed for an instagram shoot, or any celebrity’s “just woke up” selfie. They don’t realize that these pictures are meant to look like that. They have to look perfect. These influencers that we look at everyday, it’s their job to look perfect, and we can’t help but feel bad about ourselves. We are all guilty of not understanding that fact, so we continue to feel the pressure, knowing we have to look exactly like these influencers with these platforms, or else, we are not doing it right. 

I got sick of having this feeling, so I started on a new journey, a journey to become the best version of me there is. I realized that the only difference between me and an instagram model, or a tik tok star, or any popular creator is that they chose to make their lives public while I chose to keep mine private. It’s true! Because if I, or any teenage girl across the globe, decided to wake up every day and grab a camera and take people with me throughout my day, giving them insight on my personal life, then there would be no difference between me and a vlogger. Or if I decided to post fove tik toks a day and make sure I looked flawless every time, I could be verified on the app. But I chose to keep my life to me, because I value my life experiences and hold them dear. I don’t put my life out there for anyone and everyone to see, and that is the only difference between me and these instagram influencers. 

It’s time for us to stop putting ourselves down. It’s hard in the beginning, believe me. I know. But it gets better, along with everything else in life. We have to put an end to this social anxiety we get whenever we turn on our phones. It will only break us down. Confidence, self-love and acceptance are what will build us up. Remember you are the only version of you there is in this whole universe, so make it the best one it can possibly be. Once you are confident in your own skin, that is when you are truly beautiful inside and out.