“Tell Me I’m Pretty” was written black letters on a neon pink background, posted in the sand in front of a group of college students, yelling as girls passed by. My friend pointed and commented on it. How sad, we both thought. We moved on, but it was hard to shake, even as we finished out our day on the beach, I couldn’t forget it.

Panama City Beach was full of women who were screaming for the world to tell them that they are pretty! Maybe they weren’t saying it audibly, but it was communicated by they way that they dressed, the way they were hanging over men, the look of desperation in their eyes and longing for acceptance. I’ve written here before about how much we fight comparison as women, and I could tell my girls were fighting that all week at the beach.

About an hour before sunset that evening I headed out the beach with the 6 girls that had come to Big Break from Radford and we goofed around and modeled on the beach, making sure each of them had a turn in front of the camera. It was amazing to see them transform. They had all dressed up and looked their best, they grew more confident the more they heard how gorgeous they looked! The girls were shouting encouragement at each other, being silly and challenging each other to work it for the camera. They were having fun. For an hour or so, they believed it, even thought it is so easy to believe on a regular basis. That they are beautiful. One of the girls even commented as we were walking back, “I love how different we all look, but we are all so beautiful! God made all of us.”

It was truly amazing, if only just for an hour, to fight that lie of comparison, by encouraging them to feel beautiful. Because we are. No matter how the world tells us otherwise.

I hope you enjoy our short beach photoshoot.

 First, meet Haley.

One of the cheeriest and warmest personalites I’ve ever met.