You don’t have to wait for validation for your turn to feel. You can control how long you wait and how much you put up with while you do. Even if others need you. If you have not given to yourself, what you’re offering them is a husk of a person left after everyone else has already had their turn to pick your emotions dry.

The voice in your mind telling you that you’re a failure, that you don’t matter, that you are stupid or ugly, isn’t yours to carry around anymore.

If I am feeling ok, I don’t mind seeing prettier-than-life things, in fact, I often feel they inspire me. However, if I am a bit down on myself, the fire gets worse from the added coal of upward comparison. Is that anyone else’s fault? Not exactly. I compare myself enough to people in real life, that confronting more things I am bad at online becomes downright exhausting.

You’ll need to go through your journey to get there yourself, but I know you are holding onto a thread of hope that one day you will be okay. Okay is correct, but it won’t come in the form you think okay means right now.