stream of teen spirit

exercise #16

(animation by Charlie White)

When you look out into the world do you see images of beauty that you relate to?

How do you feel when you see the representations of teenagers in the media?

How do you feel when you look in the mirror?

How do you feel when you look inside?

beauty (exercise # 16)

I see what those girls are doing.

I see who they are.

They don't even know.

Will they ever?

I doubt it.

They put others down to make themselves feel good.

Behind their make-up filled faces is a hurt body.

They think they know it all.

But they don't.

I doubt they will ever realize who they are.

I wonder if they will ever move on.

These types of people aren't beautiful.

At least not inside.

They've caused too many people pain.

And I doubt they care.

Which is why they aren't beautiful to me.

~ eden hubert, 13, (westminster, vt)

ugly is believing (exercise #16)

Ugly is looking in the mirror and hating what you see. Ugly is feeling like people judge you on your looks Ugly is never seeing your inner beauty. Ugly is BELIEVING you are ugly

 

(Sometimes it takes something big, something so dark it swallows you whole. A dark night. A lost hope. A world without beauty, that is what I saw.)

 

Ugly is letting people who don’t really matter getting you down. Ugly is believing every unkind thing said to you. Ugly is when you feel less then other people because of what you look like.

Ugly is living in hell.

 

(A bathtub, water, end, so full of pain. I forgot to look for the beauty in light)

 

I used to be ugly. Never seeing the beauty inside. I didn’t believe anyone when they said I was pretty, or smart, or had potential. I never thought I was talented or really going anywhere.

 

(The water, it’s hot, so hot. I go under.)

 

Ugly is wondering why your friends hang out with you. Ugly is giving up. Ugly is refusing to go outside because you have a zit the size of Jupiter on your face.  Ugly is feeling so fat you stop eating. Ugly is when no one can get through.

 

(I tell my best friend the words. They don’t want to come out of my mouth)

 

I felt so ugly I hated myself. So ugly I felt unloved. All because I don’t have perfect hair, perfect teeth, flawless skin, but I have myself and friends who showed me I am beautiful on the inside where it matters.

 

(He stopped me, my best friend. I felt so dark, so alone, so unloved and then there he was.)

 

Ugly is being so far gone you wish it would end, and trying to make it end. Ugly is not believing you are loved. Ugly is what I used to be. But then I realized I do have potential. My heart is in the right place. And real people don't care about how you look on the outside. And I realized I have people who love me just the way I am. For the first time in my life I felt something.

 

(I look in the mirror, really look.  For the first time I see beyond the dirty glasses, the acne covered skin I look in the mirror. I see past my face. I see the inside I see what beauty really is.)

 

I felt beautiful, maybe not on the outside, but on the inside where it counts. I felt like I know who I am, I know what I want, and I know what I have to give and people who love me, and I have so much to give. Beauty is loving yourself 100%, including all your flaws. And in the end, when you love yourself, that makes you beautiful. By loving myself I realized I am beautiful.

(I see past my face. I see the inside. I see what beauty really is. The morning light brings a new day.)  

~ hanley murray, 14, (westminster, vt)

ugly (exercise #16)

You saw me as beautiful when I didn’t.

You cared enough to show me what could be.

You believed I had potential when I was so gone, all I saw was dark.

You made me see the beauty in myself when I was so full of pain.

After all the tears I shed about being ugly, about my looks, you showed me the inside of myself is what matters.

 

You, it took you, to see the beauty inside me.

~ hanley murray, 14, (westminster, vt)