I put on bright purple lipstick today. My dad didn't notice. My mom says it makes me look older. She tells me there's no point in such a young girl wearing makeup and tells me to take it off. I tell her it's just lipstick. She tells me not to talk back.

I wish I had told her why I wear it. I wish I had told her I put the makeup on because it makes me feel good. Not because I want to be pretty, but because I want to feel like me. I come back down without the lipstick. I see her putting on mascara. I get angry. That hippocrit. She wants other people the like her so she wears makeup. I wear makeup so I like myself. Because it makes me feel right in my own skin. So I've changed my process a bit. I put on the lipstick in the mirror at school so she doesn't see. But that's not what should happen. It's meant to see. It's meant to been noticed and seen. I'm meant to be noticed and seen. Not hiding.