I believe different is beautiful

This is the speech I made for my final project in my AP English class, if you read all of this you really are amazing lol

I believe different is beautiful, but what is beautiful? Is it the girl with the “weird” clothes on, is it the boy with his pants pulled up or is it the African American girl who is darker that all her friends. Well its all of the above and more. Most people look at one another and judge. I know people judge me all the time. Some might tell me that my difference is beautiful and it has taken me a while to really see that since I do get laughed at for being different. Yet who has the right to look at me and laugh when God made us all different?

 

Lady Gaga achieved her fame by being herself, being different. She showed others, people like me, that we are all beautiful. “I want your ugly, I want your disease” this quote is from the song Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. The song talks about how she is in love with this man and she wants all of him, the good, bad and the ugly. Many people, mostly our generation, wouldn’t want to be with a person with a disease and this is one of the reasons why she is so different. Little Monsters, that’s what she calls her fans. She calls us that because people look at us like we are monsters. Lady Gaga shows people all over the world that it is an amazing thing to be different and to be different is a blessing.

 

When I walk up and down the halls of  my high school, I see many different faces and many different colored boxers and boxer briefs. I asked a few guys why they “sag” their pants and the told me its because its more comfortable for them to wear their pants low then to pull them up. I really do not want to see some guy’s underwear and I know of many girls, young women who do not want to see that either but then there is that one guy. That guy who looks descent, who has his pants pulled up but he isn’t the one who gets girls or who is popular, but why? Why would many girls want to be seen with a guy who is showing the world their underwear? Why not be with the guy who is different, who is going somewhere in life.

 

The difference of people, the difference of skin color is not always seen as a blessing or as beautiful it truly is. This mostly happens in the African American community. On television, internet and radio, having dark skin like myself, is a horrible thing to the media. Now certain magazines are bringing back what is called the brown paper bag affect. The brown paper bag affect is when a magazine editor makes sure that all of the models in the magazine or on the cover are lighter than a brown paper bag. The rapper Young Burg was in a radio interview and stated that he only dates women who are lighter than a brown paper bag. There are people out there like the singer India Arie and the choreographer Martha Graham who think dark skin is beautiful but you don’t hear about that. “I like a long-haired thick red bone” this quote comes from the rap song called Every Girl by Young Money. Many people know and love this song but do people really know what they are saying. This song talks about how these men want to be with “every girl in the world” but in the first line of the song Lil Wayne says he wants a red bone which means light skinned. When I turn on the television and I watch music videos, I rarely see a dark skinned woman on the screen. I have even seen on Facebook status that guys in this school want to be with a girl who has light skin. They’re women out there with beautiful dark skin who are bleaching their skin to be lighter, to be “beautiful”. Though out my life I have seen girls struggle with the skin they are in, they have no idea how beautiful they really are. Sometimes I just want to shake them and yell at them to tell them that they are blessed to be dark but the media doesn’t help. Now girls with dark skin feel the need to get hair extensions to feel beautiful. I have been told to my face that I’m not beautiful because of my dark skin and when I was younger I believed these people but now I know that I am blessed to have the skin I’m in and I thank God for my beautiful skin.

 

Mental issues, I think almost everyone has experienced this one way or another. Either a family member, a friend, a person you see in the hallways or you yourself might have a mental issue. Some people might want to hide it or not want anyone to know but some aren’t afraid to tell you. Many people might say that having a mental issue isn’t beautiful but to me many mental issues are it is because you are alive. I have met many people with mental issues from 3 year olds to adults and they all have touched me and made me a better person. I know this guy, his name is Andrew and he has ADHD. He used to be on medication but by drawing and me helping him he doesn’t need medication anymore. He is an amazing artist and writer. He still has ADHD but not as intense as he used to but he uses his art and writing to help him get through it. I suffered from depression, I still do from time to time. I used cut myself everyday, I would cry myself to sleep every night and I would just shut down out of no where. My parents were worried about me, they wanted me to see a psychiatrist but I refused and plus I knew we couldn’t afford it. When I came here, my depression worsened and Andrew would try and help me but since he lives far away he could only do so much.

 

 When I started dance class at  my high school I realized that my depression was lessening. I took dance and used it as a way to let everything go, it was my way to scream without making noise. My teacher saw that I loved dance and that it was my passion and took me under her wing and made sure I improved. She was and still is my mother away from home and I thank God for her. She showed me that the way I dance isn’t weird, it’s beautiful. I consider my mental issue as a blessing because without it I would not be the dancer I am today. Yes mental issues aren’t always going to help and they can be dangerous but there are people like Andrew and I out in the world and who knows what we can create.

 

I’m dancer and many people know that. I can’t even explain to you how I dance; you just have to see it. Every time a dance teacher critiques me they always say that I have to control my body. When I dance I let everything go, I let my audience in and show them my pain and heart. I came to high school last year and to be honest I was scared. I didn’t know what to expect. My mom was scared for me as well, she knew that I would get picked on because I was different and so did I. I would walk down these hallways with my head down because I would hear the comments, the laughs but I wouldn’t let them see me cry. I would only cry when I got home, alone behind close doors. I was tripped down the stairs because I was different. My mother thought I was my own fault for getting picked on; she said that I made myself a target but something inside told me to keep being myself, being different. I think it was brother, grandmother and God. For all of you who don’t know my brother died, he would have been in his late 20s today. I never got a chance to meet him. So I stayed myself even though it hurt sometimes. Then people, some I knew and some I didn’t, started coming up to me and telling my that they loved they way I dressed and they wish they had the courage that I did. This showed me that I’m beautiful, different is beautiful.

 

Beauty, isn’t just blonde hair and blue eyes. Beauty is the girl with the “weird” clothes on, is it the boy with his pants pulled up and is it the African American girl who is darker that all her friends. God created everyone different so why would we want to be the same as everyone else, why fade into the background? Be different because being different, that real different, is true beauty, it makes you special and don’t let anyone tell you different.

Reviews

[Masmellow]

I really like it...
especially the part about different skin colours and racism, 'cause here in Italy there's a lot of racism towards dark-skinned people.
I think, as you said, that difference is beautiful