Poetry: Body Image

Girls are judged by many things including the way they look, the way they act, and the way they dress. These poets write about the struggle to rise above the crowd and love themselves as they are.

Pretty vs. Beautiful

Danielle Martin, 15
California

Why doesn't anybody notice?
I can't be the only one who's seen
that it's the pretty women who say it's nothing!

Well, how do we know then?
Why doesn't someone unattractive
(according to society's standards)
step up and say,
I can go with the flow,
and today is a wonderful day!

Well, I'm telling you here and now, womyn,*
beauty is what we all possess inside.
And pretty is all the BS the media feeds us,
all the lies.

So, take notice now
of my shape and size.
Notice I'm not hidden by a drape,
and I'm out here to say,
today is a wonderful day!

*Womyn: a different way to spell women to challenge the idea that "women" come from m-e-n.

Does Beauty Come From Outside Or In?

Bianca Carbone
California

Does beauty come from outside or in?

Can you walk outside and feel all right,
or do you have to show a little fright?

Do you walk into a store and shed a tear,
and will your life disappear?
Can people talk without staring?
Or will the day end with no one caring?

Does beauty come from inside or out?

Will it burn people's self-esteem?
Why is it so hard to agree?
Everybody is pretty in their own way,
I really don't care what people have to say.

Each individual represents beauty,
So, why are people so off duty?
The world is so different as you can see,
The only definition of beauty is you.

Don't let people change your mind.
From looks to words,
it's hard to say
that beauty is shown in your own special way.

To Be Beautiful

Shelun Tsai, 15
New York

Everyday, 5 a.m.,
same shower,
makeup,
lip gloss, hair.
Stand up tall,
confident.
Hide imperfections
to reflect beauty.
Go to school,
get the boys.
Land a job
without having
qualifications.
Walk the streets
greeted by many.
Return home.
Happily.

Another girl.
Everyday, 5 a.m.
Can't glow,
can't be as beautiful.
An impossibility,
shrink away.
Humiliated,
from being in
presence of them.
Go to school,
gym clothes stolen.
Rejected from
the job,
scoffed at.
Walk the streets,
faces contort.
Return home.
Crying.

Because beauty,
the innate
advantage,
wins.
Until one arrives
who reads
beautiful hearts,
instead of
beautiful faces.

Breaking the Mirror

Jaden Marie Paige Gregg, 13
Kansas

She bats her eyes,
gently teasing her hair.
She's a true toast to society,
this blonde bombshell in red.
She works on a problem,
softly rouging her cheeks.
Men only look at her
and don't see beyond
to what she feels or thinks.
And as she applies the mascara,
she's thinking of breaking the mirror.

Girl in the Mirror

Kavita Adatia, 18
Illinois

Every morning she looks inside the mirror.
She doesn't see what you see.
She doesn't feel happy or free.
You tell her she looks great.
But what she sees is a nose too big, a body too fat.
Her hair she tries to cover with a hat.

When you look in the mirror
you smile,
and admire your unique style.
You're not perfect.
That's for sure.
But at least your personality compensates for a whole lot more.

But when she looks in the mirror,
she frowns and makes a face,
convincing herself she'll never feel in place.
You look at her
and start to wonder how a girl
could be lost in a whirl
of clothes, money and looks.

You were able to accept you for you.
You knew there were some things you can't change no matter what you do.
And, unlike you, she couldn't accept her flaws.
You talk to her and ask why.
When she starts to answer she tries not to cry.
"I just want to be like everyone else, I want to fit in."

Then you understood, you read her mind,
what was happening and why.
The difference between you and her, you started to see,
was that she was trying to change herself
into someone she was not.
She didn't know, she couldn't feel
that the person she wanted to see in the mirror
was not real.

Vogue

Evguenia Paramonova, 19
Alberta, Canada

Glamour on the Vogue cover, licking the salt from her sweat.
A provocative idol,
lotus cream skin, glassy, full lips.

Shrunk shirt and
straw sandals—figure it's in the brain?
Belly showing—like white fish belly.

Snapshots and images of laminated smiles,
and Dentyne gum teeth.
Fake things they always say,
things we want to hear
like everything is peachy.

All we see is
a Calvin Klein body.
The fleshy masquerade.
Makeup like shoe polish.
What if you took the shots from
inside out?

Face

Katie Distler, 17
New York

Her perfect face
and perfect hair.
Her cheeks that radiate
the warmth of sunshine
on a winter's day.
Her twinkling eyes
that seem so happy
and free—
it is all for show.
A little makeup
can go a long way.

Perfection seems real,
but it is an illusion—
a reality that is nothing
but fiction.
Striving for perfection,
she seems so real,
if only everyone knew
the truth.