The hardest part of having an insecurity

The hardest part of having an insecurity is thinking that's the first thing that everyone sees. For me, it's my smile. I hate smiling and pictures and life. I hate watching videos of myself back. Because the first thing I see is my teeth. The crazy part is I'm trying. Growing up, I didn't have great oral hygiene. That's just the truth. And I have a gap that's unsated. I've tried whitening. I've gone to the dentist. I've tried fixing what I can, but some of the damage is just there. And maybe people don't notice as much as I think they do until someone leaves a comment proving they did. I've had comments telling me to buy toothpaste to see a dentist people comparing me to movie characters. And after so long, you start seeing yourself through the comments and the commentary. You stop seeing your smile and you start seeing the version of yourself that strangers created. Here's the reality. For someone just scrolling on Tik Tok, my smile is a punch line, but for me, it's my face. It's the smile my friends know. It's the smile my family knows. It's the smile I've had my entire life. This isn't some shocking before picture. It's just Me. It's just me. And maybe someday I'll be able to fix everything that makes me insecure. Maybe I won't. I don't know, but I do know that it's hard for anyone to believe that you have to look perfect before you're allowed to love yourself. Because if I wait till every flaw is gone, honey, I'm going to be waiting my whole life. So if there's a takeaway from this admission, that's also just very obvious. Just remember, the thing you're making fun of on somebody else might be the very thing they're trying to accept every day. Be kind. Because some of us are trying to learn how to love the face we see in the mirror. Don't make that harder than it already is.