We live in a world that sells self-doubt in glossy packaging.

From billboards to Instagram filters, from magazine covers to cosmetic counters, we’re constantly being told we’re not enough—unless we buy, apply, or “fix” ourselves. That beauty is something to be earned, achieved, perfected. That only when we become the smoothest, smallest, most symmetrical version of ourselves will we finally feel what we’ve been aching for: worthiness.

And so we hustle.

We contour our cheekbones and straighten our spines. We Botox our emotions and silence our softness. We diet our curves away, flatten our bellies, tighten our skin—and yet, after all that effort, many of us still feel a quiet ache underneath the surface:

Am I lovable yet? Am I pretty enough now?

Here’s the truth no industry will market: beauty isn’t something you can buy. It’s something you cultivate from within.

It’s in the light behind your eyes, not the lashes around them.

It’s in the stories your stretch marks tell, not the creams that promise to erase them.

It’s in the courage to show up—messy, real, unedited – and still say, “I am enough.”

Beauty lives in your laugh lines, your rawness, your resilience.

It lives in the way you care deeply, cry easily, and keep going even when you’re breaking.

It lives in your capacity to feel, to soften, to begin again.

And yet, so many of us treat our bodies like problems to solve rather than homes to cherish. We forget that this skin, these bones, this heart has carried us through it all – joy, heartbreak, birth, betrayal, survival. Every line and curve is a map of where you’ve been, not a measure of your worth.

As little girls, we didn’t know to hate ourselves.

We twirled in front of mirrors, played dress-up, and loved ourselves without condition – until the world taught us otherwise.

Now it’s our job to unlearn the shame, release the striving, gather our fragmented selves and stitch them back with tenderness.

To reclaim beauty is to reclaim power. To stop performing and start being. To look in the mirror and see not a project, but a soul. 

You are not here to be consumed.

You are not here to be perfected.

You are here to be whole.

So the next time you feel the pull to shrink, to edit, to disappear – pause, take a breath, place your hand on your heart and go within. Because that is where your beauty has always lived – the perfectly imperfect, unedited and real you. Only this act of courage will set you free.

Your in exquisite beauty,

Ava 🌻