Is beauty a flat stomach? Is beauty perfect skin with no wrinkles? Is beauty freshly painted finger nails? Or is beauty a body with perfect curves?

As a young teenage girl growing up in this generation, where they tell us one thing but change it the next, I want to know these answers.

For as long as I can remember we’ve been told “it’s what’s in the inside that matters,” but is it really?

What if there was a red head girl, with a skinny body and straight teeth, who wasn’t very smart. Then there was a curvy blond that had braces and glasses but was funny and clever. Which one would be considered beautiful?

Do you have beauty when you are intelligent or have perfect hair? Is it in the inside or outside?

Many people think that what you see on the surface is what you’ll find underneath. This assumption is what causes people to think less of themselves or to be narcissistic. What if you miss out on somebody amazing just because they aren’t engaging when you first look?

I no longer want to be judged by my appearance to others, even if I may be beautiful to them on the outside. Beauty’s not the first glance you sneak in the hallway. It’s the unknown that lies within.

Beauty is the way you look at something that interests you. How you get a spark in your eye when you’re reading a good book or going up to bat. The powerful feeling you get when you score a goal in soccer, or complete a math question that you insisted was unsolvable.

Beauty is the way you treat others and show them you care. How you don’t mind listening even if it bores you, because you know they would do the same for you.

Beauty is the way your voice softens when you talk to a little kid or baby. When you help a little kid with a math question and teach them the same way you were taught. How you hold a baby with shaking hands because you can’t believe that you used to be that tiny.

Beauty is your compassion. Being able to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, even if you don’t like them.

Beauty is being able to stand up for something you believe in, even if you are the only one standing.

Beauty is integrity. Having the strength to be truthful to others and yourself.

Beauty is acuity. Knowing when it’s the right time to do something, and when it’s not. Putting together the fact that somebody might not be having a good day, and wants to be left alone.

Beauty is unconditional love. Caring for someone that has flaws because we all do. Loving them because they are imperfect, and that’s what makes them beautiful. You love them with all your heart for their personality and not their money or looks.

We shouldn’t be judged by how perfect our hair is parted, or how our eyes don’t have the right contrast with the shirt we are wearing. We aren’t the brand of jeans we are wearing. Not the length of hair we have. Beauty’s the unseen, that can’t be discovered unless you spend enough time to notice.

Our lives are way too short to be discussing what a person is wearing and how ugly they may be. You can’t make that postulation unless you’ve walked in their shoes before and looked deeper than just the surface.

We live our life calling other people unattractive and chunky, thinking they are ugly, but that only makes us uglier. We don’t know and we may never know if they are truly beautiful.

I don’t want to miss out on a true friend or soul mate because I won’t look deeper than their outer façade. I want to be the one that is willingly able to see their true beauty. I want to tell them they are funny when they need a boost. Or give them a hug and remind them just how magnificent they are. We live in a society that has made its own definition of beauty, that consists of looks and constantly compared to people that are perfect from the outside. That isn’t fair and we shouldn’t all be sorted under the same description because we are all exclusively special.

We all were born with different types of beauty. Some of us have a better way of showing theirs than others but that’s what makes us all unique. I love who I am and I love knowing other people do too. I don’t want to be judged by my looks anymore, though. I’d rather be called ugly because somebody doesn’t like my personality instead of just the way I look. Beauty runs deeper than the skin, deeper than a flat stomach, deeper than freshly painted finger nails, and deeper than perfect curves. We can’t see beauty and we never will, at least not the true kind.