…nor am I fishing for compliments.

In fact, I do thank everyone who thinks or has called me pretty, even if I look like a blank sheet of paper next to many pretty girls that I know. Lots of them are around my age and are often praised and known for their good looks. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s good that others actually recognize them for that. What bothers me is that most people fail to look past their physical appearance. I don’t like judging or assuming the worst about people, especially those that I don’t know personally—but once I know how they really are, I tend to think twice about them.

What makes a girl pretty anyway? Is it the number of likes she gets on her Facebook profile pictures? Is it the number of followers she has on her Twitter or Tumblr filled with photos of herself? Is it the price or brand of the clothes she wears or just the way she dresses? Does she even have to wear something in the first place? Is it her face? Her hair? Her breasts? Her legs? Her skin? Must it have anything to do with appearance at all?

Many of these pretty girls are the usual stereotypically ‘cool’ ones. They have the nicest faces and perfect hair, along with their fully-developed bodies wearing the best clothes. They’re the ones who party, drink, and smoke at an early age (then complain about how fat or unhealthy they’re becoming), have multiple boyfriends (then complain that there aren’t any good guys anymore), love to spread gossip (because they think they’re better than everyone else), and do crazy shit (which is actually just stupid) because they know they can get away with it with their looks. This is exactly why I am not pretty. I refuse to be classified with this kind of people.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate them nor do am I generalizing all pretty girls. I may actually even be jealous of them sometimes, simply because their physical appearance is already an excuse. Let’s face it: the world is kinder to the good-looking. But actually, no, it’s not an excuse. It’s not supposed to be an excuse. Before you fix your make-up, why don’t you fix your attitude first?

I may never be as aesthetically pretty as any of them, but I know that I will always have self-respect, my dignity, and my decency, and I will always value these more than my physical appearance.