THEY ARE ART AND SO AM I

It's about damn time you fall in love with yourself. Featuring Nadine.

Call yourself beautiful. Close your eyes and whisper the words, then face the mirror and look at yourself. Really look – notice your blemishes, count them, then call them beautiful. Call them lovely. Admire the arch of your upper lip, then smile. Think to yourself, “Beautiful.” Say it when you’re putting on make-up, say it when you’re taking it off. Say it as a joke you mean around people who will understand. Say it around people who won’t.

Watch films about manic pixie dream girls, and see yourself as one. Take note of the little things you do; the sound of your laugh, your little moles. Paint your nails and give it a backstory. Purple because violets are you favorite flower, yellow because it reminds you of summer. Only listen to songs that remind you of stories you tell. Paint a self-portrait. Call your friends and have them take pictures of you. Pick your favorites then post them on the internet. Don't count the likes.

It’s easy to see yourself as beautiful if you look at yourself as a painting. There are lots of kinds of paintings, and lots of kinds of artists. You can be impressionist, abstract, surrealist. You can be a Kahlo, a Van Gogh, a Dali. You can be anything and everything. You are never two-dimensional – whenever people see you, they see something different everytime. You will never run out of multitudes. You will not feel envy for others the same way a Basquiat does not envy a Warhol – they simply flourish in their own way. Flourish in your own beauty. As the famous book quote says, ‘she never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice. It was supposed to make you feel something.’

Self-love is not a smooth road, especially since we live in a world that brings down anyone who dares to be proud of who they are. Embrace the labels – vain, narcissistic, self-centered, embrace it all. Embrace the fact that you can celebrate yourself in an environment that’s always bringing you down. Unlearn the internalized misogyny and learn to love yourself. Compliment others and see their face light up. Repeat until you do it like a reflex, like it’s a natural part of you. Do it until everyone eventually does it, until everyone sees each other in a rosy tint.

Your body is your home – don’t burn it down.