There you go again…saying something really dumb. You’re so stupid! You feel TOTALLY ugly. You always screw everything up. You know your friends don’t really like you. They must be talking about you right now behind your back. And you have a crush on Matt but he’ll never like you, in a million years. You’re just not good enough.

Self-Esteem-what you think of yourself and what you value about yourself-is the most important thing to have in life. It’s also the most fragile when you’re a teen. It’s pretty normal to have lots of ups and downs. But how you let the normal ups and downs affect you, says a lot about your self-esteem. If you’re always down on yourself and surprised when someone says great things about you; you probably need to work on your self-esteem. To feel confident and good about yourself, take care of the basics first. Try to eat healthy food, get enough sleep and exercise. When you exercise you’ll immediately feel better about yourself. Exercising causes the body to produce endorphins. They are chemicals that make you feel more relaxed and less stressed out. Once you have the basics down, there are a whole lot of things you can do to work on your self-esteem.

1.  Start by basing your self-esteem, not on your looks, but on your talents, character, and accomplishments. Know that you can be good without being perfect. Nobody in the entire world is perfect or always right. Start by sticking up for yourself and get rid of that little voice inside your head that keeps telling you that you’re not good enough. Good enough for what? Everyone has something special about him or her. You may not be the “hottest” girl, or the captain of the soccer team, but you can still find something special about who you are – loyal, thoughtful, a good friend, a hard worker, etc.

2.  Ask your closest friend why he or she likes you. Ask your parents what they think is great about you.

3.  Set realistic goals for yourself. Realize that nobody's perfect.  Write down things that make you happy and work on them. If you look deep enough, you’ll find something special that you can feel proud of. Once you start feeling special about yourself, others will think you’re special too.