I used to look at all the magazine covers, / near the checkout line / at the grocery store / when I was younger, / and sometimes the cover / would show a celebrity / with the headline, / "Here's what she really looks like. // And I wanted to see, / obviously. // Um, I wanted to see / what was underneath, / and I wanted to see the flaws. // Everyone wants to see / the flaws / of another person / because we want to see / glimpses of our own insecurities in them. // And we want to know that we aren't the only ones. // From a young age, / we are unknowingly being trained by / magazines, / marketing, / and all forms of media into thinking that having cellulite / or not wearing makeup / is worthy of being publicly shamed. // So there is no way in hell that as young women digesting this media, / we weren't all going to try and hide those parts of ourselves / from then on. // We aren't born / with these insecurities. // We are told / to be insecure about certain things. // We are conditioned to feel ashamed or embarrassed / about certain parts of ourselves. // The world is not going to reform / tomorrow. // We can't rely on those who profit / from our perceived flaws to change their ways. // There is no easy fix to the idea... / the ideas of women that have existed for hundreds of years. // So that leaves us with / one option, / which is changing it ourselves. // Showing / what's real / with no filter / and certainly with no shame. // You are helping / the movement of strong, / modern women / when you show the parts of yourself / that we have been forever / told to hide. // So as a first step, / I encourage you to find a healthy balance between expressing the natural, / vulnerable side of yourself / with the glamorous, / contoured side. // As much as I like to share photos from / shoots and red carpets, / I think it's much more important to show what I look like the other 99% of the time. // Some days I feel / strong and confident / and other times / I'm sucked into the rabbit hole of / awful comments / where strangers are criticizing parts of myself that I wasn't even aware of. // So / how do I let / every day be one of those / victorious days / where I feel invincible? // I don't... / I don't know, / I don't have the perfect solution, / but / I have discovered / some things that do help me have those better days. // I started to purge myself of content / that made me feel / less beautiful on a daily basis. // I unfollowed / the accounts on Instagram / that made me question / the shape and curves of my own body. // I also started living a more active lifestyle because / I wanted to feel healthy on the inside / which required some thoughtful effort on my part. // But / I wanted to know that I was healthy and strong without having identical measurements / to those other women that I was seeing. //