Different is Beauty by Paris

Different is Beauty by Paris - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

Every child’s dream is to have friends. It feels even better fitting in. Or it was at least a dream for 8 year old Paris, today 9 years later it is no longer a dream but now applauded to be different. If I were able to give one piece of advice, I would tell my younger self to not change herself to conform to society’s beliefs of what it means to be cool or normal. I would give this piece of advice over thousands of others because I would be able to protect myself from the lack of self love because I wasn’t like everyone else. I would gain the power of being authentic and being loud and proud in my skin, allowing my creativity and different ideas to flow and bring opportunities for the world. Growing up and not having that reassurance that you are perfect being different caused a lot of mental spiraling, mainly gaining an identity crisis. The result in trying to change my authenticity to be like everyone around me soon led to me not knowing who I am at all. It took years and confidence to finally get to where I am today, unapologetically me, knowing who I am, what I want to do, what my circle should and does look like and to believe that I am beautifully and wonderfully made. J.Cole made a song that goes, “you ain’t ever going to be happy until you love yours”, every time I feel myself falling to the pattern of being like everyone else I remember to love me and everything that my life has to offer. The piece of advice I would give to my younger self would be to unapologetically be my authentic self because different is beauty.