As part of an assignment, seventh grade writing class students were tasked with creating a slam poem about a topic they were passionate about.

13-year-old, Olivia Vella from Queen Creek Middle School overseas recited her powerful poem in front of her class titled ‘You are good enough!’

She posted a video of her recital on Facebook and once you watch it you’ll understand that it is not surprise that the video has gone viral. Her words might leave you speechless or even in tears. It certainly left me in awe.

It is so beautiful, so inspiring, yet gut-wrenching at the same time. Her words are not just relating to teens, they can be felt by all at any age.

In the poem, Olivia perfectly addresses the misery of a teenager struggling with insecurities and the desire to “be popular.”

“Society infers girls have to have skinny waists, tan skin, long silky hair, perfectly straight teeth and big butts. Society infers girls have to wear tons of makeup to look pretty. Society infers girls have to wear skanky clothing and do inappropriate things with boys to be happy and considered cool.” She concludes with a powerful message.

“Society is wrong,” she says. “You are loved. You are precious. You are beautiful. You are talented. You are capable. You are deserving of respect. You are one in seven billion.”
Most of all YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!

HERE IS THE POEM:

“1 take a shower, you don’t want to smell
2 pick out an outfit that will fit in with the latest trend more than you already are
3 put on some make-up so you can actually show your face in public and be at least a little bit pretty.
You can’t even recognise yourself and your face tinkles with an unbelievable itch that you can satisfy otherwise you have ruined the hours of meticulous painting you have applied to your hideous face.
4 don’t forget to style your hair in elegant curls; you can’t let everyone at school see how your hair frizzes up like an electrocuted monkey naturally.
5 shove your fat feet into those toe pintching, blood blistering converse that everyone at school is wearing and you cannot be the odd one out.
As you gaze into the bathroom mirror you see a stranger that somehow stole your reflection and replaced it with a completely different girl.
Every part of your outfit is uncomfortable but even though you spent hours trying to look pretty you will never be as good as those other girls at school.
You actually holding back a few tears but you are actually holding back a tsunami of emotion and you can let anyone know how you feel because they won’t respect you the say way that they used to.
Or did they ever?
Why am I not good enough?
Beauty is pain!
6 get off the bus.
7 find a group of people you can walk to class with because heaven knows you can’t just walk alone.
But you don’t even like these people.
They cuss and make dirty jokes a lot and they laugh and make fun of you.
You know you shouldn’t hang out with them, but hey, they are the popular kids.
And you just want people to like you, like they like them.
You in the stocks as people throw judging tomatoes and hating cuts of lettuce at your insecure little head ,you cannot stand up for yourself because you are alone trapped and defenceless.
And you cannot stand up for yourself because these popular kids are like the royalty of the school and apparently what they say and do goes.
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.
Down, down, down, into the dark dreary depths below.
You look at all the other girls, your mind racing a mile a minute, I wish I had her eyes, I wish I had her hair, I wish I was as skinny as her, I wish I had her perfectly straight white teeth, I wish that I had her social confidence, I wish as many boys liked me as they liked her.
Why am I not good enough?
Life isn’t fair!
8 get your work done; the only part of your life that seems solvable is the actual school work.
You take pride in your work because it is possibly the only thing that is special about you.
You do it to see the radiant smiles on your teacher’s faces as they applaud your work, the joyful praises, the gentle rain that brings forth a magnificent rainbow, that radiant sunshine that brings forth fields sweet daisies, one of the only things that brings you happiness.
But it is not popular to be smart!
In fact you are seen as a nerd, to smart, human calculator, brainiac, geek, teacher’s pet, suck-up, whatever wonderful name you can think of.
Your peers’ jealousy is the pollution that prevents a rainbow, the bulldozer that ploughs through the fields of one’s golden daisies, the intangible object that crushes ones happiness like a bug.
A’s are getting you nothing but torment!
Why, am I not good enough?
Just get over it!
9 it is the end of the day, get ready for bed.
10 undress, get your pyjamas on.
Wow did I get fatter today?
11 undo your hair, wow my hair looks like a mop.
12 wash off all your make-up.
I can’t even look at myself!
This is my life every day, I can’t control it.
I have been told I can’t compare apples and oranges.
I have been told I am distorted.
I have been told I have to be grateful for who I am, but going through your middle school years, you are on your own journey to find yourself on a small jet.
And sometimes you cannot control what happens to you, the turbulence will throw you off course.
But popular isn’t always a good thing.
You tell yourself, I just want people to like me I just want to be accepted but skipping meals and marking up your wrist isn’t going to fix that.
You look at other girls wishing you were them, but other girls are looking at you wishing they were you.
Society infers girls have to have skinny wastes, tan skin, long silky hair, perfectly straight teeth, big butts excreta.
Society infers girls have to wear tons of makeup to be pretty.
Society infers girls have to wear inappropriate clothing and do inappropriate things with boys to be happy and considered cool, but society IS WRONG!
You are loved!
You are precious!
You are beautiful!
You are talented!
You are capable
You deserving or respect
You can eat that meal!
You are one in seven billion!
Most of all you are good enough.

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