7th grade girl goes viral when she asks "Why am I not good enough?"
Being a teenager is perhaps one of the most difficult phases in our lives. While it’s true that being young means having a carefree life, at the end of the day, it isn’t all fun and games. For starters, not only you have to worry about school academics, but you also have to deal with peer pressure, emotions on overdrive, and just surviving your daily school life.
Reliving all of those bottled up emotions is tough, but can you imagine pouring out all your thoughts and emotions in front of the class? Scary isn’t it? Well, one seventh-grader did just that for her writing final.
Olivia Vella was a student at Queen Creek Middle School in Arizona. Their teacher asked them to find a topic that they are passionate about and she turned to insecurities.
Vella’s poem explores the question, “Why am I not good enough?” as she talks about the daily struggle of a young teenage girl.
Throughout the poem, she breaks these struggles into 12 different points such as body image and the overall intense pressure to fit in. Although these issues may be simple, it can turn into something ugly if it builds up and you lose control over it.
Olivia describes the numerous pressure that a young girl has to deal with – and that simply getting ready for school can lead to a major problem.
“You take each comment, each judgment, each assumption, each opinion, each strange look, each remark, each criticism, each review, each report, each assessment, and with it your self-esteem plummets like a sinking ship,” Olivia says at the beginning of her performance.
For six whole minutes, the seventh-grader challenges her audience to think, and encourages everyone to overcome these negative emotions that they have succumbed to. Her powerful performance impressed her classmates and even her teacher, which led to the school uploading her performance to the internet.
Olivia’s teacher, Brett Cornelius recently told ABC News, “I’m so proud of her. She’s steering this ship of self-love, and I’m proud to call her my captain and hero.”
He also added that her monologue was:
“filled with raw passion, fear, vulnerability, and immense courage has caused a worldwide rippling effect, and I’m so proud of her. She’s steering this ship of self-love, and I’m proud to call her my captain and hero.”
The video became viral in an instant with over 320,000 Facebook shares and over 16 million views. She told ABC News:
“The reaction to the video shows I am not alone. We are not alone in how we feel.”
Olivia sums up the poem with words of encouragement to herself and to others who are also struggling, saying:
“You are loved. You are precious. You are beautiful. You are talented. You are capable. You are deserving of respect. You can eat that meal. You are one in 7 billion,” she says. “Most of all, you are good enough.”
Do yourself a favor and watch Olivia’s substantial sentiments in her poem by watching the video below.
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