I recently heard the following. Now, I realize that this was a story in about 5th person, and that the end comment was only shared and not the full conversation, but it still just riles me.
A teenage girl, probably 14 y/o, commented about her teenage crush on Josh Hutcherson. Her father told her '10s only go for 10s, so you should stop liking him.' Or something of the sort.
Again, this was only relayed to me. Therefore, I dont know the complete context in which this comment was made.
I am so thankful that I never heard that comment directed to me by my father. Im so glad that I never had to ever think that there wasnt atleast one (male) person in the world that thought that I wasnt the greatest girl/women ever. Im so glad that I had a father that expressed, maybe not often but enough that I knew, how beautiful and fabulous I was and that I was deserving of whatever it was that I was shooting for, even if my teenage self rarely believed him.
Those teenage years are horrendous. They are filled with abundant moments of shear self doubt, and endless lack of self-confidence. (Or maybe that was just me!) And if you dont think that you have your parents, and hopefully siblings, friends, and whoever else you are able to find strength in (namely a God in whatever form you believe in), behind you, than its hard to find the needed self-confidence to make it in this (at times) cruel, horrible world.
In a world that is tearing down the image of women, and making it harder to find goodness in oneself, look around to those you interact with and find ways to show kindness and love towards them. Help them feel that they are 10s in the crazy world that wants everyone to think they are merely a 2 in need of x, z, and y to ever get to be a close to a 10.