We're too concerned with image. In our digital age of constant visual stimuli, how we appear to one another has engrossed the very fabric of our lives and self definition. We've become obsessed with getting our time in the spotlight to the point that we feel constantly inadequate based on the idea of outward appearance in both physical looks and physical acts, defining our own self-worth solely by other people's input. Instead, what we need to be focusing on is how to love ourselves, to afford ourselves the ability to embrace who we are at our core, to express ourselves without abandon, solely because we all have something unique inside us that needs to get out; not because other people need to see it, but we need to see it manifest for ourselves. We must learn how to understand our own selves, how to forgive ourselves for our own faults, learn from our mistakes, and know that it's perfectly okay to fall down as long as we pick ourselves up again afterwards. Stop living for the approval of others, and live instead for the approval of yourself. This doesn't mean become narcissistic or egotistical—it simply means that you should never fear an aspect of yourself to the point that you refuse to explore it. Strive every day to be better than you were yesterday, to live that much more today than you did before, but do it for yourself and only yourself. Once you've learned to master that, to care for yourself on the most fundamental level, to embrace yourself and give yourself license to see all the wondrous beauty within you that you can healthily love, THEN you are best prepared to extend that same love to others around you, and cannot be brought down by negativity that others try to push on you, which is a reflection of the negativity they see inside themselves.