I hate social media.

I hate the trends that make women feel insecure, unloved, and ugly. 

I especially hate the trends that involve a new beauty filter, with yet another impossible beauty standard I’m expected to follow. 

I hate staring at the comments and reading stories of women after women “manifesting,” hoping for a new nose or a skinnier pair of legs. A flat stomach or a thigh gap. Things I never even considered valuable until I got an account on these apps. 

I hate that most girls I know struggle with their body image, looking in the mirror for hours on end just to see if they can change something. 

I hate that I struggle with it too. 

I hate that I have to scroll through my social media and every five posts is how to avoid human traffickers.

And I especially hate it when these useful “tips” start to trend. Because we all know that these people will just find another way to traffic you and the caution becomes meaningless and women keep getting raped. 

What I hate even more is that there’s advertising for pepper spray every 5 videos yet Michigan law states that you need to be 18 years or older to own one. And the caution becomes meaningless and now it’s women and girls that keep getting raped. 

I hate that now I’m never too sure if I’m going to get trafficked because someone’s following me in a store, or there’s a shopping cart near where I parked or even the fact that if there’s a napkin on the handle it’s going to be laced and I need to get in my car some other way. 

And my caution becomes meaningless and I have a possibility of being raped. 

I hate that whenever my mom sees a post about horror stories of rich, smart, kind girls getting drugged and raped by their classmates, that she sits me down and tells me that if I’m ever uncomfortable that I can call her and she can pick me up. 

I hate that one day I might forget those words, and find myself stuck in the same position those rich, smart, kind girls are in. 

I hate movements like #metoo and times up, not for the fact they promote women to speak up about the violence someone has caused them but for the fact that we even need a movement to begin with. 

That a lot of men can’t recognize their own actions, know no boundaries because when a woman says no, she just can’t admit how much she wants me, right?

That even after these women speak up about something that has torn them down and haunted their life for so long, that the first question they ask is: 

Well what was she wearing? 

But despite all this, I love social media. 

I love the movements like #metoo and times up because of the amazing women flooding their comment sections saying: 

You aren’t alone. We believe you. 

I love that my mom sees the posts about women being raped because when she sits me down and talks to me about how I can call her, I know that I have someone who wouldn’t care what happened because she was just glad that I was safe, that I was home. 

And I love the videos that tell me tips on how to not be trafficked because I know that us as women are all in paranoia together. That if I had something on my car I could come up to any woman in that parking lot and ask her to stand next to me for a while. And she would. 

And I love beauty trends! 

I love beauty trends that show women complimenting their eyes, their noses, and their stomachs. Their height or their hair. I love that women can proudly say that they love how different they look from everyone else because God knows what would happen if we all looked the same. I think I love it all. 

And I think I love social media too.

If you know someone who you think is a victim of human trafficking please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 

 https://humantraffickinghotline.org