Understanding Self-Acceptance Through Others' Acceptance

WHY DO WE NEED OTHERS TO ACCEPT US IN ORDER FOR US TO ACCEPT OURSELVES? By Julia, Sara, Leah, Nicole

Short story: Sam the Athlete. The reason this story goes with the essential question is that Sam didn t feel comfortable on the girls field hockey team. After he made a big save to win his team the game, his team cheered for him and gave him big hugs. In that moment, Sam felt part of the team and also felt excepted. My personal connection to this story is that when Sam joined a team, he was shy and didn t know if his team members would except him. It s a new feeling when you join a new group/team and you don t know how it s going to go. SHORT STORY

The YouTube video I chose for our inquiry question is called You Look Disgusting by the user MyPaleSkin. In this video the women shows how people s comments can affect others. The girl in the video has a popular YouTube channel in which she uploads videos revolving around makeup. The video stats off with the girl when she is not wearing any makeup, as the background music plays she sits there bare faced and comments from her social media accounts pop up on the screen, You disgust me is the one that stood out to me. The comments she receives when she is just being who she is are revolting. Then you see her putting on a full face of makeup and more comments appear on the screen; these comments are different you are beautiful lovey gorgeous the comments she received were kind. As the kind comments show up on the screen they change again, false advertisement you wear too much makeup. This video is a perfect example of how complex beauty standards have become and how impossible it is to make everyone see you a certain way. Many people are very concerned about what others think of them, it s human nature to care; to want to fit in with the crowd but you should never lose sight of what is really important to you. There are so many people struggling with accepting themselves and this video shows that whatever you do or whatever decisions you make people will judge. The main message is that you can t change what people think or control what they say but you can control how you react and the thing is that you need to do what you makes you happy. Don t focus on what others think because the only person you have control over is yourself and nobody can take that control away unless you give it up. As a makeup lover myself I can understand how the creator of the video is feeling when she sees the comments on her videos and other social media. I find it terrible that she gets such horrible comments when she is just doing what she loves. I think it is very important for people to know their worth and to continue to strive for self acceptance. YOUTUBE VIDEO

PERSONAL CONNECTIONS Personal connection coming to a new school. The first day I came to riverside I was nervous, I was anxious about being judged especially by the older students And being the youngest I had a lot of anxiety but overall, I knew I had nothing to worry about. Because I knew I had grand expectations about the people and high school in general. Knowing and accepting your own flaws is important before someone points it out.

MOVIE In the movie Mean Girls, Cady, a homeschooled student from Africa, moved to Illinois with her family. She had homeschooled for 16 years, so the public high school was a totally new experience for her. She met Janis and Damien who take care of Cady and teach her about the school. In this high school, there were three girls called The Plastics . They all look good, have nice outfits, and are rich and popular. The queen of The Plastics is Regina who influences Cady and other school students a lot. Since Cady did not want to feel like a stranger, she had to follow the rules and join The Plastics . For example, one of the rules was to wear pink on Wednesday, but Cady did not have any pink clothes. She had to borrow some in order to be just like The Plastics . Moreover, any girl who would join the group was not supposed to tie the hair more than once a week. Cady made the decision to comply with the rules in order to be accepted by the others. Especially The Plastics . Her decision led to two situations. Once Cady tried to join into The Plastic , she estranged from Janis and Damien. However, Cady knew that it was not what she wanted to do. She did not want to act like Regina, and she knew what she should say or not. Every time she regretted her words, and she did not want to admit that she was acting like Regina. Therefore, Cady apologizes for what she had done, and she was accepted by Janis, Damien, and Aron.

VISUAL The reason we chose this picture is that it s explaining how you shouldn t compare yourself to others. When others except that you are as equally awesome as them, you learn to feel confident about yourself. My personal connection to this picture is that I have been compared to others because of their qualities. I have reminded some people that no one likes to be compared to someone else because everyone is different in a good way.

NOVEL The novel I chose to represent our inquiry question is called The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, this book is all about self confidence and understanding the key components self appreciation and the of the science and art of self assurance. Self acceptance is hard to achieve for most people as so many people have different opinions and thoughts about beauty, this book helps the reader get in touch with the idea of self confidence which is something that most people need to work on. Most people seek others approval but in my opinion the person you should be trying to improve and work on is yourself. There is always room to improve but you should try to be the best yourself, not because anyone tells you that you need to. The personal reason I chose this book is because I think it is very important to focus on being your best self and making decisions that will improve your life, I am a strong believer that everyone is capable of love and loving but they need to truly love themselves firs. This book helps a lot of women achieve self acceptance which I find very important to live a happy life.

POETRY Poem: Accepted by Natalie L. Accepted Be yourself they say but make sure it's what's accepted The poem Accepted has a great connection with the question. We need others to accept us first before accepting ourselves. In my opinion, humans have different personalities, and they sometimes need to give up being themselves or accept others weaknesses and strengths. Being yourself is not always beneficial. That is why people want to get accepted first rather than accept themselves. People should know their limits to keep their friendship going. People do not know whether others will accept them or not. That is why we have to sometimes say white lies or give up some possible reactions.