A friend posted this on facebook, and it moved me.

It's true, that things that just happen to us can make us more valuable in the eyes of others.  Things like physical appearance, race, or the socioeconomic status we are born into (which is harder to break out of than most of us would like to believe).

But the part that really hit home for me was how she was talking about how insecure she is, and how none of the benefits of being a model make her all that happy.

I don't put this out there very often because it's hard to talk about (if you ask me about it in person, I will start crying and I don't know why, so please don't) and I don't like considering it part of my identity, especially since it's pretty well-resolved at this point, but I struggled with disordered eating in college.  I was never alarmingly small unless you were family or friends who'd known me for awhile, but I was pretty slender.  And to be honest with you, I liked having that body.  Wouldn't mind having it now.

Flash forward to now, I am about 30 pounds heavier than I was back then.  It's enough to put me one or two pounds into the "overweight" range (which I am working on, in a healthy way).  And you know what?  There is no point in all of my almost-29 years in which I could say that I am happier than I am right now.

Get secure in your own skin.  Develop a skill you can be proud of.  Spend time around people who are positive.  You probably don't look like a model, because few of us do, but that's more than ok.  Getting prettier (or skinnier) won't make you happy, but developing yourself into someone you genuinely like will.