Many teenagers and young adults deal with insecurities; part of this is because social media has set high beauty standards, and that has caused many young boys and girls to think that they need to meet them. Social media has taken over a big role nowadays; it has gotten to the point where it makes teenagers feel bad about themselves, creating insecurities.

There are physical insecurities and mental insecurities. Physical insecurities are when you don’t like something about yourself that has to do with your body. Mental insecurities have to do with how you feel, think, and socialize. Most people think that physical insecurities are more dangerous than having mental insecurities. Sophomore Camila Reyes said, ” In my opinion, physical insecurity is a big one for people because it could be the smallest thing that they think is wrong with their body, and then they want to change it in the quickest way possible to try to erase something beautiful about themselves. Another reason is that judging is something every person does, and that’s what gets people thinking that there’s something wrong with them, not knowing that words should never make you change the way you are.”

Freshman Siany Valdez said, “I think that physical insecurity is worse because of the beauty standards that the world sets for a lot of young people these days. Most of the time, young teenage boys and girls find themselves comparing their bodies to their friends, and they also create this mindset that their body needs to look like the beauty standards while their body is already healthy and normal, but they still wish they were someone else that they aren’t.”

Sophomore Karen Rubi Hernandez said, ” I believe both body insecurities and social insecurities have a huge impact on people. Whether that’s someone being judged or rejected, but if I could pick one, it would be body insecurities. I would pick body insecurities because in this generation it’s more so on how people look, for people to judge you. Someone could say one thing about someone, and now that’s all the person can think about. Then when they think about it, they get insecure and try to change it. Then they start hating the thing that one person pointed out about them.”

Being insecure about something doesn’t make you less of a person; there are many people that are insecure about themselves. Freshman Siany Valdez said, ” I am mostly insecure about my emotions more than my looks. A lot of the time my emotions get in the way of my day, and I end up taking them out on people I care about even when I don’t mean to. I am insecure about this because I see how people can control their emotions better than me, and I start to feel very conscious of myself. I start to hate the fact that I make bad decisions because of my mood, and I wish I could prevent that. I would tell someone with the same insecurity as me that it’s okay and that there’s always a chance to work on it and try just your best to change it. I would also mention the fact that nobody is perfect and our emotions are controlled by us.”

Sophomore Karen Rubi Hernandez said, “I can be insecure in many ways, but time management is a huge struggle for me and has made an impact on me.  Sometimes I can control it, other times I can’t. There’s always a type of feeling when I do not manage my time right. The reason I’m insecure about it is that it makes me feel behind. When I see people around me, like my classmates, ahead and always getting everything done on time, I feel like I’m not doing enough or just wasting my time. When I do not manage my time well, it gets to a point where I start to feel slow, as some people would say. It’s also hard when I have always been a straight-A student to be someone I don’t even recognize, who is always late, and when work catches up to me, I get more and more work pulled up because I did not do my other work on time. I would tell someone with the same struggle as me that it’s okay and that time management is not a flaw but something they can procrastinate on. I would also say that taking a mental reset is also okay because some people believe that by the afternoon they have wasted the day doing nothing, which I can’t lie, I have also felt before, but I have realized that if I focus too much on the clock, I won’t get anything done properly or not to my full potential.”

Sophomore Camila Reyes says, “I’m insecure about the way I am not able to focus in class when the teacher is teaching. Given that I’m insecure about the way I would be seen by others for not understanding or answering the work correctly. I feel like it’s not normal for someone to not focus the way I do. Like, I know there are people in school who don’t focus as well, but I always felt like mine was different because when you feel a certain way about something, you think of it as if you’re the only one who’s ever felt it. For anyone that struggles as I do, just know that it seems hard to change because you feel different, but everyone is, and that’s what makes you yourself. Even if it’s a good or bad insecurity that you want to change, there are people who care in a good way about the insecurity that you have.”

Insecurities can be caused by people judging you or by social media setting certain standards. There have been occasions where people make fun of other people and make them insecure about themselves, but researchers have found that most people who do this are because they themselves are insecure about something. Being unique shouldn’t make you insecure; one little side effect shouldn’t make you insecure. Just be yourself and have confidence because at the very end of the day, no one is perfect, whether it’s on the outside or inside.

Have you dealt with insecurities? Were you able to overcome them or at least tried? Let us know in the comments how you dealt with judgments and insecurities and how you’re working on yourself!