Over the years, I’ve learned not to care about how others see me; slowly, I learned that appearance isn’t everything.

Despite the best of intentions, the initial appearance will always factor into the view of others. I try to stray away from objectifying people based on appearance because I don’t want them to do it to me.

Throughout my life, I’ve been unhappy with my appearance; I always wanted to be taller, blonde, a different ethnicity, and many more traits that were different from the ones I was born with.

My look has definitely changed throughout the years—the way I would classify my old look would be the “basic girl look” embodied by basic t-shirts every day with leggings or running shorts. 

I rocked the look for a few solid years without a doubt in my mind. That was until I slowly transferred over to the athletic-based look which consisted of black leggings, my hair always being up, running shoes, and obviously, an oversized sweatshirt. 

I still didn’t care what others said about how I dressed. I just knew all that mattered was what kind of person I was on the inside. 

I might currently look different from my old self, but I’m still the same person, and people just need to take the time to actually get to know me. 

I don’t want others to judge me based on how I dress, but at the same time, I just don’t care. While growing up, I realized that no matter how I dress, my inner beauty will always shine once someone takes the time to truly get to know the real me.

However, just this last year, I decided it was time for me to do a complete 180 and switch my style around. I told myself it was time to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new as I stepped into a new stage in my life. Within a month, my clothing choices were the complete opposite of what I was used to.

I may dress a bit darker now, but it’s just clothing—clothing doesn’t define me.

My new aesthetic may be different, but I am still the same person. This may be the real look I’ve always wanted or one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in a while—who knows? All I know is that I’m just living my life to the fullest. Switching my style might’ve been a small instance, but I still think that it was something that impacted my life.

Due to the new look I’ve been contriving lately, I am judged just because of my clothing choice. I think it’s time that people finally start to get to know each other before they make assumptions; I personally don’t base opinions of the person on physical appearance and actually spend the time to get to know who they truly are because clothing doesn’t change anything.