Quotes About Authenticity

Its not bragging if its true.

She still felt like a punked-out, faux-leather-wearing, free-thinking Bratz doll in a sea of Pretty Princess of Preppyland Barbies.

Don't ask me how I am,' I blurt. 'Please.' I want to keep feeling good. Just because the lights are on doesn't mean I have to look.

When you go to high school, and you're trying to figure yourself out, sometimes it takes doing things that you don't like in order to figure out what you don't like. But it's important to maintain your sense of self throughout the journey.

I can be human to strangers and coworkers, just not to the people who actually care about me.

You have to dig down and find some part of you that doesn't care what people think, doesn't care if it's hard, doesn't care if it hurts, doesn't care if you have to momentarily experience humiliation, uncertainty, fear.

When I'm at my best, my writing identity comes from a deep and quiet place where the noise of approval and disapproval is a neutral background landscape more than a declaration of who I am. Conversely, the times I feel the worst about being a writer are when I'm looking for likes, fishing for approval, or otherwise in search of evidence that I'm somebody, because I've momentarily forgotten I already am.

I hate it when people think they know me when they really don't.

Good luck. Be safe. And if you can't be safe... be yourself.

I grab my laptop and log on to ChezTeen.com. Within minutes, I'm surrounded by friends, even though I've never met any of them. There, I can pretend that my first day of school was fantastic, because no one is going to know anything different. I can be anyone I want to be when I'm online and I don't even have to wear makeup.

I don't have to smile and pretend I'm fine even though inside I feel like I'm breaking into a thousand tiny fragments too small ever to be put together again.

I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into appearances. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting.

Because the truth sometimes hurts, I said. Yeah, he said. So do lies, though.

It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself.

I meant what I said to you. I wasn't playing some kind of summer game. Everything I said was true, from the first day. EVERY GODDAMN WORD.

Macy: "In Truth," I said, "there are no rules other than you have to tell the truth." Wes: "How do you win?" he asked Macy: "That," I said, "is such a boy question.

I've always known who I am. I might not work perfectly, or be like them, but that's okay. I know I work in my own way.

I mean, it's impossible to fake anything if you've already seen the other person in a way they'd never choose for you to. You can't go back from that.

Then what are you like, Annabel? he shot back. A liar, like you told me that first day? Come on. That was the biggest lie of all.

You know, I think I knew you for about three weeks before I ever really saw you smile. And then one day, Morgan said something and you laughed, and I remember thinking it was really cool because it meant something. You're not the kind of person who smiles for nothing, Colie. I have to earn every one.

That's what this has been all about for you, correct? Make it clear. That you and me--it was nothing more that you'll have with Spinnerbait boy, or the guy after that, or the guy after that. Right? Yeah, I said, shrugging. You're right. He just stood there, looking at me, as if I had actually changed before his eyes. But this was the girl I'd been all along. I'd just hidden her well.

The best gifts come from the heart, not the store.

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself