They call us all the selfie generation,

encourage confidence just to shame it.

They airbrush out flaws and blemishes

and say we're all beautiful regardless.

They give us mixed signals about all this,

about beauty and what they think it is.

"All bodies are beautiful!" or so they say.

Then they edit the problems away.

We show skin covered in stretch marks,

acne, dark lines, and battle scars.

Eyes lined in black ink and lips in red,

pucker up, hip out, phones over our heads.