By Ava Moga, TIWP Student

To be a teenage girl is tiring.

It’s a constant battle with yourself and others, 

a captivating yet strenuous time of self-love and self-hate,

trends, and diets galore: 

“burn 200 calories in 10 minutes,”

“do this workout for instant abs,”

“low-cal recipes to lose 10 pounds.”

I thought I looked good the way I was

until I gazed at the reality in front of me

and saw that becoming a teenage girl isn’t so easy.

That plastering on of mascara, concealer, lip gloss,

and fighting against my will to look “presentable yet effortless”

was the only possible way that I would look okay to the masses.

Hundreds of dollars wasted on stupid skirts and crop tops

that I hated how I looked in them,

so much so that they were soon pushed into the back of my closet,

collecting dust and turning into distant artifacts.

I wish that I wasn’t so afraid of the girls who strutted around the hallways

with their perfect bodies and perfect faces.

I wish that I wasn’t so afraid to impress them,

all I wanted was to be friends with them, to gain their approval. 

But in reality, I didn’t understand that other people had the same insecurities as me,

equally struggled with a life that I perceived perfect.

As badly as I want my several teenage years to end,

being a teenage girl is strengthening, it’s emotional, endearing. 

As much as it’s filled with hate, it’s also filled with love.

Girls paint over the cracks in their friendships 

and replace the insults and disparage with kindness and affection.

When the time finally comes to an end, I know I will miss it,

long for it, cry over it, but also celebrate it because

I can finally let it go.

That’s what being a teenage girl is.

On behalf of all of us, we wish you knew, cared, or understood,

that being a teenage girl is tiring.