Has the world's definition of beauty ever jaded you?

In my early teen years I struggled with the fact that I didn’t have the perfect body and wasn’t blonde, bubbly or athletic like the girls around me.
I was different and I knew it.
The underlying thought that I didn’t quite make "the cut" when it came to beauty constantly nagged me through high school, holding me back from living like the woman God had created me to be. Instead I trapped myself in fads and became overly obsessive about my outward appearance. I worked so hard to be the “right kind of girl." I didn’t realize how damaging this was for me until I looked back on my high school years and saw how I had wasted so much time wondering what people thought of me and trying to please them that I had forgotten all about who I really needed to live for.

Through a series of events and people God brought into my life I began to let go of the idols and self doubt that had trapped me. I started doing art on a regular basis and instead of trying to dress myself like the other girls I started wearing what I liked and felt comfortable in.
I became confident that godly guys actually cared about me as a person and not as an object.
I knew God had created someone out there for me who would fall in love with me for me and
would love me till my dying day.

God allowed me to cast aside the ideas about beauty the world had thrown at me and come to the realization that true beauty is being different and being unique, not being a carbon copy of the "popular girls." God freed me from my unhealthy, people pleasing habits and showed me that I was beautiful because of my mind and spirit.

He showed me that I had something to offer the world that no one else could.
He showed me true beauty is being like Christ,
dying to myself so Christ might shine through me,
serving others with no expectations,
praying for those I hate,
realizing I am human and God is all that's worth living for.

That's what really matters in the long run, not my physical appearance which will fade away,
or having the right clothes, or car, or gadgets, those won't last either (Matt. 6:19-21).
The only thing that's going to last is
simply loving the One who saved me, created me and wants most of all to be
my only Love.