“Oh, she’s beautiful!”

“Just look at those little eyes!”

“She is a cutie!”

Why is it that compliments are most used in a physical sense? Ever since we’re young, we’re complimented on how beautiful we are. How our eyes are so bright like our father’s. How we have our mother’s gorgeous smile. And at first, yeah it makes sense. You’re a new being, a life has been created and safely born— and you’re beautiful!

As you become older, it starts to make less sense how people always comment on looks, and it seems to be the main compliment given! Yes, it is a lovely feeling when you’re told how great you look, but with society’s irrational beauty standards, it becomes about more than the words we say to each other. It becomes about how we look and so much seems to revolve around that. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy compliments, I enjoy feeling that I look good, but it’s important to remember that there is no one way that is beautiful and that there is more to someone than what you physically see.

“Aren’t you a gorgeous girl?”

“You’re very pretty.”

“Oh, you’re beautiful!”

Beauty in society is no more associated with how you act, or the fact that your living, breathing body is amazing and strong and beautiful because you exist; it’s about looking a certain way. So when we, as people in this society, are only complimenting on looks, it puts the idea of beauty on an unattainable pedestal, and everything else falls away.

What we need to remember, is that there is so much more than this idea of ‘prettiness’. There is no one way of being physically attractive, and there is so much more to a person than what you see. We are human beings. We are made of bone and muscle and blood, and our bodies are capable of amazing things. Our minds are incredible. There is so much we can do, yet society is hung up on the ideology of being pleasing to the eye.

“You’re so pretty!”

“You’re stunning.”

“Your body is goals.”

So often we are reduced to what we look like, and it’s not right. There’s nothing wrong with being concerned with how you look, of course, but we need to remember that every single being is more than what they look like. You are strong and capable, and deserve so much recognition for that!

So don't be afraid to say, "and...?" because you are beautiful, and more.

“You are beautiful and smart.”

“You are intelligent and brave.”

“You are creative and inspiring.”

You are more than one thing.

You are extraordinary.