You are and always will be beautiful. Never forgive me
if I don’t tell you that enough. This world can be unkind if
you’re young and female, pay no attention to it.

Your hips are not love handles, muffin tops, or show dogs,
they’re architecture. When your hands rest upon them
know they were shaped from the nights you laid on your
back as a girl, pony wishing every shooting star above you.
Those uneven bone edges between your shoulders are as such because
of every early morning your mother and I rocked you back to sleep.
Let these awkward angles remind you how loved you are.

Never thumb through fashion magazine model spreads as though
they were instruction manuals. Your beauty’s in shades they’re
yet to master, still unsure how to paint autumn and laughter. 
Those women lie in waiting rooms, you have too many
wonderful places to go. Ready your walk for the runways
of airports.

Wear what best reveals your smile and the quiet gardens
that bloom around the soft outlines of your irises. 
These, no Photoshop palette can replicate, let them
envy every drop of it.

When strangers ask your name, give them the lines of latitude
and longitude where they may locate your favorite mountain
on a map so they can understand the heights to which
you aspire and feel the crisp air of skyline that curls the hair
on the back of their neck when you pronounce the ‘s’ in “Everest.” 

This world will try to break you. Despite all its shorelines,
cathedrals, and the perfect roundness of its shape, the grace
carried by a girl with her head held high is often too great
for it to cradle in its arms. Don’t let this discourage you,
know that every blemish and curve was a gift they can
never take from you.

Should all else fail, simply trace the circumference of the
sun across your closed arms, open them wide, and watch as everything
gravitates towards you. Greet them with the whites of your teeth
and reeducate every feeble mind still waiting to be blown, and they
will be, by the confidence a woman can harness in every inch
of her skin. Show them the tag on the back of beauty’s dress
that says “one size fits all.” 

Never let anyone tell you your worth, knowing you’re an endless
vault of sun brewed tea and campfire, ginger snap and jazz,
late night movie marathon and miracle. Don’t ever let them define you.

Because you, will only ever be you, and no one will do it better,
hold every piece of this close to your heart