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 house where what I did was appreciated and at the same time, it 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 personal experience. Long gone are the days where teenagers were happy playing hide and seek or just making friends 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 with 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 we are perfect.

I was in 11th standard and this guy in my class started calling me names just because I had a big butt. He used to tease his girlfriend by calling her names like 'saggy boobs', and it was not long until I realised that it was not funny and no one should call anyone any sort of names. Everybody and BODY are 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 I'm not cool and I do not get jokes.

Well in my defence, a joke about a body type/ color/size can in no language be funny. These were the same boys who supported the killing of James Floyd in America and calling a dark complexioned guy as "kaloota" in India.

In my honest opinion, if you are calling someone names, don't be a hypocrite. 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 I was given names in my school, and maybe I’ve still not accepted myself 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, people like me. Who are taking that first step to being "real". 

We are not alone, and we need to come to terms with reality, that we are not 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 half full. Shall we?

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