Strength in Beauty by Christina

Strength in Beauty by Christina - January 2026 Scholarship Essay

From the very beginning of my life, I've struggled with insecurity, way before I could put a name to it. My earliest form of self-doubt was when I was about four years old, and I experienced something that I felt like should be told to a peer. Once I wasn’t believed, I started questioning myself, “Did that really happen? Am I making this up?” This quick moment of self-doubt was quickly set in stone when I immigrated to the US from Haiti in the first grade. Due to my differences, my inability to understand the English language, and simply because I was fresh meat, I became an outcast. When the students played, I was left aside and behind; they didn’t know how to interact with me. I quickly learned English, and it was downhill from there. They made fun of my appearance, my body, and my skin color.
From first grade through the beginning of my junior year, I struggled with my self-esteem. The beginning of the second semester as a junior, something clicked in me. I looked in the mirror one morning before going to school, I stared at my face and said, “I am not ugly.” I looked at my soft, full lips. My mole, which was divinely placed on my hairline. My untamed coily hair and my velvety brown skin.
My beauty took me aback, and although others might say that you can’t find strength in beauty, I beg to differ. All my life, I was held down by the opinions of others and under constant worry about how I look when I smile, what people think about my hair, and what about my outfit. There’s so much strength in being able to take back the power that was stolen from you by mere words.
So as I go on with my life with this new epiphany, not only my outward appearance, but this newfound appreciation for myself will allow me to grow into someone self-assured in who I was destined to be. The opinions of others will not bear weight on how I carry on with my life.