my nail beds suck

First of all, I am never mentioning my diet coke consumption ever again.  

Sunday morning, my older brother/roommate got super drunk and decided that he needed to talk to me for several hours about his ex-girlfriend, the moon, the Joker, magic, the Joker and drugs.  Once I kicked him out of my room, I finished drying my hair and had to leave the apartment before I broke something of his in a fit of rage.  As I couldn't get in touch with my family to see if there were home, I decided to pass my time at Target.  Sam wanted some pants for his birthday, I wanted to look at throw pillows and lip gloss, etc etc.  I got Sammy's pants (only after very detailed instructions from him as I realized I know nothing about how to shop for men's clothing) and wandered around the store after prying from my hands several scarves, bags and sandals.  I then thought that maybe some new hair accessories would brighten my day.  

I walked to the hair accessory aisle and saw what appeared to be a family.  A man, a woman, and what looked like three 8-9 year old girls.  I was looking around, trying my best to ignore them, when I saw that the group of young girls were all crowded around those hand held mirrors.  I then heard the following exchange: 

"Ohmygosh, look at my eyebrows.  I totally have a unibrow."

"No, will you look at my skin?  Ugh."

Just to be clear, this was coming from the LITTLE GIRLS, not the adults.  I have a very hard time keeping my thoughts to myself, because even if I am silent, my facial expressions have a tendency to rat me out.  By this time, I had fully turned my whole body to face this group of girls and was staring at them, mouth agape.  The girls did not see me, and neither did the adults, and I turned quickly on my heel and walked away.  

Now, if any of you have ever even mentioned anything remotely concerning women and body image issues, you have probably heard my 30 minute tirade about the subject.  I HAVE A BIG PROBLEM WITH IT.  I so wish we could live in a world where EVERY PERSON, male or female, could believe that they were beautiful.  I have listened to countless friends talk about how they wish they could change this or that about their bodies, but most of my friends are adults.  

THESE WERE CHILDREN.

Not teens, not even tweens, these were little girls, who should not need to worry about their looks past the point of have I brushed my hair in the last week and am I wearing shoes.  It makes me so sad to hear people my own age berate themselves, but little girls?  If we start hating ourselves at nine, what's next?