A Middle Schooler Summed Up All the Pressure Put on Girls With a Single Poem

Remember how awful middle school was? Well if you don’t, allow 13-year-old Olivia Vella to remind you with her brilliant—and chilling!—poem. As part of an assignment, the seventh grader spoke in front of her Queen Creek Middle School class (and now, the world) about the pressure fit in with the popular kids and live up to unrealistic beauty standards. But here’s the especially interesting part: you won’t just relate to her powerful words if you battled self-esteem issues growing up. You’ll also relate to them as an adult, trying to accept yourself in a world where it seems like you’ll never be successful enough, pretty enough, fit enough, or [insert another quality here] enough compared to other women.

Olivia left us with tears in our eyes by the end of her six-minute monologue, and you’ll likely want to send it to friends after you’re done. Watch her recite it in full ahead, and let her overall message—“You are loved, you are precious, you a beautiful, you are talented you are capable, you are deserving of respect. You can eat that meal. You are one in 7 billion, and most of all, you are good enough.”—inspire you.