My childhood was filled with colors, music, toys, love, respect, education. My parents never let me feel deprived of anything. I got the best of everything that I wanted. I grew up in a secured home where what I did was appreciated and at the same time they taught me how to accept my shortcomings.

They taught me to be polite and to always speak the truth. But they forgot that I am from the 'Reel Generation', where people do not care about the truth or about being polite. It's only about how fake you can be, and this comes from a personal experience.

Long gone are the days where teenagers were happy playing hide and seek or going to the movies with their friends, spending time with grandparents or cousins. Today, everything must be documented, from a small flower to traveling in a plane or watching something on Netflix, basically getting the aesthetics right. The number of photo editing apps, filters on Snapchat and Instagram are small proof of that. Girls and boys talk about body positivity and how all blemishes are pretty, while they have tons of makeup and filters on them, and somewhere we have started believing that yes, they actually woke up like that and what they are saying is true.

In no way is this an attack on anyone. It is just that a majority of us have stopped seizing the day and started to do things that would show how cool our life is and that we are perfect.

I was in 11th standard when this guy in my class started calling me names just because I had large hips. He would also tease his girlfriend by calling her names like "saggy boobs", and it was not long until I realized that it is not funny and no one should call anyone any sort of names. Everybody and every BODY is different and unique and beautiful in their own way.

When I called him out on it, most of my classmates started boycotting me just by saying that she is not cool and does not get jokes. Well in my defense, a joke about a body type/ color/ size can in no language be funny. These are the same boys who speak against the killing of James Floyd in America and label a dark complexioned guy as "kaluta" in India.

In my opinion, if you are calling someone names at least have the balls to do it without being hypocrites about it. I am a part of a generation that talks big and thinks small. We watch these perfectly toned bodies on Instagram and start aspiring for it.

Girls and boys, acne is true, anxiety is true, being of a certain shape and size is true, having a darker complexion is true and we need to de-attach ourselves from the apps on our phones and come to terms with reality. It is okay to want to be of a certain bodyweight but it should come from within and not by looking at the edited, made up and filtered bodies. We are better than this.

Maybe somewhere this is my insecurity, which came along the way as I was given names in my school, and maybe I’ve still not accepted me completely, but a part of me also knows that there are so many like me out there who believe in what others have to say about them, so this is for them. That we are not alone, and we need to come to terms with reality, that we are perfect, we express love and joy and are at peace. Out of the 100 people I know, so what if 50 disapprove of me? There are 50 who love me, adore me, and want what is good for me, so let's start looking at the glass as half full.

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