“You should always be yourself. You can look to things for inspiration, but you should be owning what you’re doing. It should be your own. You should never feel apologetic about it. My mother was very healthy, drinking lots of water and eating vegetables. When I got to junior high, where you could buy your lunch, I began drinking soda. I broke out, and my mother said it was from soda. I stopped drinking it and never had breakouts again until I was 30 and got adult acne.” – InSTYLE
Category: Self Worth & Esteem
Adria Arjona
ADRIA ARJONA
“If you fail, you get back up knowing you will be stronger. It’s one of my favorite things about getting older. I’m realizing how powerful I can be.” allure
Common
COMMON
“One of the important things about relationships for me has been to really know and love myself more and be able to express the things that I want. I’ve evolved and gotten to that place. I communicate. I listen to what Tiffany has to say about how she feels and try to understand it instead of always having an answer. It’s about being in a relationship where you can grow, support each other’s purpose and vision, and have fun. People Magazine”
Amanda Gorman
AMANDA GORMAN
“Being my fullest self without apology. For so long my voice was the thing I was most ashamed of, and now it is the thing I’m most proud of. It is a power no one can take away from me.” InSTYLE
Halsey
HALSEY
“The whole thing to remember about pronouns and identities is that they’re not meant for other people. They’re meant for you to help better understand yourself.” allure
Shay Rudolph
SHAY RUDOLPH
“For me, I’m more confident, and I can hold my own in a group. I’m kinder to myself so I don’t second-guess my natural instincts and that helps me perform better.” GL
Chris Ruden
CHRIS RUDEN
“I pretend like everything was okay, but inside I was dying. Just because someone says something about you doesn’t make it true. I love how my story can potentially help people. Everyone has the potential to improve their quality of life even if it’s just improving the internal narrative most of us tend to struggle with.” People Magazine
Tiffany Haddish
TIFFANY HADDISH on learning how to love yourself
“When I hit 25, I read a book by Louis Hay, You Can Heal Your Life. It taught me about self-love, about looking in the mirror, in your eyeballs. This book was saying, just look into your eyeballs and tell yourself that you love and approve of yourself. The first time I did it, I cried really hard because I don’t think I really did love or approve of myself. And as I took on this practice and did it on a regular basis, it was like my life started to slowly change into what I thought I wanted. I really started to recognize my actual beauty and slowly became confident. I had a certain level of confidence that was deniable. And now I’ve nurtured myself like I wish my mother would have all those years ago. I just turned 21 for the 19th time. One of my goals was always to walk into a room and project happiness, elevate the room within 10-foot radius of where my body is there’s joy and happiness around there. ALLURE Magazine
Michelle Obama
MICHELLE OBAMA
“I’m just not someone who can be anything but who I am, letting someone else’s expectations dictate how I act or feel always leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable. It’s easier to just be me. The things that we think are our inadequacies are usually our strengths.” People Magazine
Jennifer Grey
JENNIFER GREY
“Your self-esteem shouldn’t be attached to being perfect or judged. What if we all just did what makes us happy. I think one of the things I’ve understood as I’ve gotten older is how little I care what other people think of me. What I’m mostly concerned about is how I feel about myself. And if I can’t love my aging body, it’s not very kind to this body that’s been working so hard to keep me in the game. If I look at my stomach where my skin is loose because I had a daughter, I think to myself, ‘Oh, the skin…’ And then I go, ‘Who are you? This is not your higher self talking. Look at that beautiful daughter that you made in your body, this human being who’s the most important thing in the world to you, that changed your life .’ Considering what my body has put up with, I just have to be grateful. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to not be great at something. Don’t be afraid to be a beginner. Don’t be afraid to just be whatever it is you are.” People Magazine