1. There will be several days that you daydream about stepping in front of a city bus. Don’t. It will not be beautiful. It will not be brave. It will be selfish. It will be broken. Your mother will cry.
2. Don’t write for him. Write for you. Write for others like you. Write so the girl that thinks about stepping in front of public transportation doesn’t. Don’t be selfish.
3. When you will yourself to sleep and it doesn’t come- get up. It doesn’t matter that it’s 3 am. There will be other 3 am’s. Take a shower. Take two. Wash him out of your hair. Write a poem. Read the same book you’ve read 202 times again. The 203rd time might tell you something different. Don’t stay in bed- you will think about the bus again.
4. Don’t kiss him because he’s broken. Don’t kiss him because his laughter never reaches his eyes. Don’t try and fix him. Fix yourself first. Be selfish. He can’t save you.
5. Date yourself. Take yourself out to eat. Don’t share your popcorn at the movies with anyone. Stroll around an art museum alone. Fall in love with canvases. Fall in love with yourself.
6. Dress up and wear red lipstick and get drunk with your friends. They’re the ones that will pick you up. Don’t kiss him. Or him. Don’t fall asleep on strange couches with strange boys. When his hand slides up your dress walk away. Hit him. Don’t kiss him. He can’t save you.
7. Get another tattoo. Get five more. Get another hole in your ear. Don’t listen to your dad. You will still be able to get a job. Did you really want to be employed by someone like your father? Haven’t you had enough of judgmental old white men anyway? Get fuck you tattooed in tiny letters on your hip.
8. When you feel the yearning for a new city- start over. Take 200 bucks and a three suitcases. Work anywhere that will have you. Meet strange people and forget your name. Call yourself Ruby. No one will know the difference. Remember to call your mother. Don’t be selfish. Come home when you find yourself in the strangers and the small one bedroom apartment.
9. Don’t whisper evil things into your own ear. Other people are going to shout them at you. Be your own hero. Keep a sword on your key ring.
10. Don’t step in front of a city bus. It will not be beautiful. Live. Stay up all night with a boy that promises you everything and means it. Live. See shitty local bands with a friend. Wear a different band’s t-shirt. No one will care. Live. Have a baby girl with tiny fingers and tiny toes someday. Pour love into her until it’s overflowing. Live. Wake up. Staying in bed all day is not poetic.
Live. Live.
Live.
Do you hear that? It’s me. It’s your life. Wake up.
" —it’s the same concept that haunts us from a few years earlier in our history. What is “Separate but Equal”? Discrimination.
It’s discrimination.
An abomination
This generation should be uplifting, encouraging, loving
Stores that boast about “Our Plus-Sized Section”, what is that?
Anything above a size 8?
8.
That’s a total of 4-5 generalized sizes that is suppose to cover our whole population, or “The Beautiful People.”
The Beautiful People, in reality, is anyone and everyone.
It’s inclusive rather than exclusive.
Our clothing websites and advertisements should be filled with people who we need to see in the media- people that reflect us, because these people who are in there now, are no doubt beautiful, like the rest of the population- but they’re photoshopped, and don’t represent us all.
Let me see women who look like me model the clothing I will spend my money on.
Just try it, in one advertisement.
Don’t label it as anything other than what it is.
A dress.
A shirt.
A pair of sunglasses.
Sunglasses don’t come in sizes, unless you want to make it plus sized for all the extra brain I’m carrying around, so why do you need the people modeling them, who are? THEY’RE NOT EVEN WEARING THEM HALF OF THE TIME.
Back to this rant;
On a different, but the same note;
Let me see a model without white features
Let me see a model with Latina heritage
Let me see a model with Black heritage
Let me see an model with Asian heritage
And not the “Token Race”.
Let me see a model, who looks like me, who looks like the friends I have, who looks like the beautiful people around me.
The models are no doubt beautiful, because they’re people- not because they’re thin, or white, or rich.
Show me someone who looks like me.
