Let's Love Ourselves This Valentine's Day

That's the real me. It's the real me without any editing. That sun flare is real. You can see my cute little eye crinkles (that I love most of the time) and my not so white teeth. Of course, though, that’s me with makeup on and my hair curled. I was even wearing real pants. Jeans to be accurate. Most days I’m in comfy pants and warm, cuddly tops. I’m 30, almost 31, and this year I want to love myself more than ever. For Valentine’s Day, I want to talk about accepting who you are and making peace with what makes you you.

I feel like each person goes through a tumultuous journey when it comes to how they feel about themselves, or how they view themselves. We are our own worst critics and we can be awfully mean.

There is no reason for us to feel like we aren’t pretty enough or thin enough, or that our hair isn’t long enough or thick enough, or that our skin isn’t clear enough. We are enough. We are always enough, just as we are.

I was very lucky. I know this because I still am. My parents always told me that I was beautiful and smart, and funny, and kind, and wonderful. I don’t know what happened but somewhere along the way but I stopped believing they were telling me the truth. I went through a time in my life when I wouldn’t leave my house without a full face of makeup, my hair done, and heels on my feet. I had to be made up just in case I saw someone who would think poorly of me if I wasn’t “perfect”.

My skin was never good enough (even though I was very lucky up until college and had really great skin) and my hair was never right. I was most confident when I was so thin you could see every bone in my body. I thought I was my most beautiful at 115 pounds. Just for the record, I’m 5’10”. You do that math. I started hating the way my teeth looked. I refused to smile in pictures unless I was taking them myself so I could retouch them and make my teeth whiter.

My teeth used to be totally straight, so much so that dentists always believed that I was lying when I told them I never had braces, but my teeth aren’t perfect anymore. I have been embarrassed about my no longer straight teeth for such a long time and I have no reason to be.

Pictures I’ve shared on my blog of myself have been “prettified”. I never alter the makeup or whatever it is I’m showing you but I do get rid of any zits I might have and I make sure my teeth are white, but realistically white because I would never want any of you thinking that I edit my teeth to make them look whiter. I just wanted everyone to think that they really are brilliantly white. Guess what? They aren't!

My teeth are what they are, my skin is what it is, I am who I am and I need to fall back in love with myself because I am as perfect as Kassie can and ever will be. No one in the world is perfect but we are all as perfect as we could and should be. I am beautiful. I am smart. I am funny. I am kind. I am loving. I’m not broken even though I am sick. I’m not ashamed of who I am, at least I won’t be any longer. I am me and I am proud of who I am.

I'm writing this because I want you all to remember that you are beautiful. You are perfect just like you are. Don’t ever look at social media and feel that you aren’t enough. You are. You are perfect. You deserve to love yourself and exactly who you are at this moment and every moment in the future.