“A little damage makes people more interesting, right?”

—	Catherine Hapka, Something Borrowed

“I see everyone and no one in myself.”

—	Sylvia Plath, from a journal entry dated 23 May 1951.

Skin2

I don’t imagine you
saran-wrapped in black latex
or seeping out the edges
of something tight and red

I don’t close my eyes
to dream of your back
arched at the impossible angle
of a bow pulled tight
encouraging your shoulder blades
to drip the blood
of stockpiled broken hearts
but I hope the sound
of you not shielding your eyes
from my blinding humility
will one day top the charts

it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard
and you’re the charlie chaplin of your beautifuls
because you make me believe it
when you say it all without saying a word

looking at you it occurred to me
I could sit around all day
wearing nothing but your kiss

you make mirrors
want to grind themselves
back down into sand
because they can’t do your reflection justice

and this just in
I am done with those
who in life would have made me fight
an army of imperfections
a battalion of flaws
tonight we’re going to keep this city up
when they hear our bodies
slap together like applause.

-Rliey Dog

Silly.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Deserving of love.

When you’re a Crazy Girl, you’re always (subconsciously or consciously) testing the people who love you because you don’t believe you’re deserving of love, and because you’re so insecure that you need to be proven right. If you really fuck up, like for real this time, and people get fed up with you, than you were right about them and about yourself.

— Kate Louis

Body Image.

"When I was younger, the nice comments I received on my clothes and figure reminded me that people were judging my appearance. People asked questions like where I bought my scarf much more often than what I was interested in studying after high school. I spent more and more time in front of the mirror each morning, making sure to apply my makeup just right and checking that I hadn’t eaten too much the previous night. I felt like I was constantly the “before” picture in a makeover magazine spread, and I always worked hard to make myself into the beautiful “after” shot.

I still remember those zits I erased in photos and those days when I just waited for someone to compliment me on my shirt. It took me years of gradual confidence building to realize that I am gorgeous and valuable even when I don’t dress to the nines and look like a model.

We are raised to feel like we are inadequate, that we are not good enough for boys, for attention, for compliments, for acceptance, for success. Teenagers and pre-teens consume an average of 10 hours of media a day. Those images can send encouraging messages, but they can also perpetuate toxic stereotypes. It can show women being sexualized in magazine advertisements, women gossiping about other’s appearances on television, and music videos on YouTube where men treat women as inferior. They are being aimed at a younger and younger girl audience, but we have the power to shape the social culture surrounding us by changing the way we think."

— Annemarie McDaniel, writing on why our #Proud2BeMe campaign with NEDA is so important. Join us this week to celebrate yourselves, celebrate your friends, and tell body-obsessed media to back off!

“Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.”

—	Victor Hugo: Ninety-Three

Stubborn Love.

When we were young, we did enough
When it got cold, we bundled up
I cant be told, It cant be done

It's better to feel pain, than nothing at all
The opposite of love's indifference
Pay attention now, I'm standing on your porch screaming out
And I wont leave until you come downstairs

So keep your head up, keep your love
keep your head up, my love
Keep your head up, keep your love