True Beauty

She looked into the mirror aware for the first time that she was not the same girl that she used to be. The changes were gradual, one's that you don't see appear from day to day, but had obviously become something other than who she used to be. She traced her finger tips over her soft skin. She made sure to touch every inch of her face to soak it all in, and finally see the person that she is, and not who she used to be. She slowly raised her forefinger to the tip of her nose, and she caught her eyes staring herself down in the mirror. For the first time she wasn't just looking in the mirror; she was looking at herself, and the person she had become.
It was an odd sensation to see herself staring back like that. It was as if she had never caught a reflection of herself before. How could she be sure that was her looking back at her from the glass? And so she slowly slid the tip of her finger up the bridge of her nose, over her right eyebrow, and then dragged all her fingertips down her eyelids, making sure to take it all in, just incase it wasn't real tomorrow.
She then took both of her hands, cupped her chin, and pushed both of her hands up her cheeks, feeling the hard cheekbones and the warmth of the skin underneath her cold hands. It was almost as if it was someone else, and not her at all. As her hands cupped her face she bent her head down and her tangled hair fell on top of her hands, still wet from her shower. She lifted her head back up and pushed her hair to the side.
She turned her hand over so that the soft skin of the back of her hand skimmed from the dimple in her chin and up to the side of her lips; she made soft circles against her skin and closed her eyes to the softness of her own touch. It was in that moment when she opened her eyes back up again that she realized she was really truly beautiful. She was no longer a little kid with missing teeth and scrapes and cuts, and she was no longer a victim to the insecurity of acne.
Her skin was not flawless, but it was beautiful all the same. She was beautiful. The girl staring back at her in the mirror was no longer a stranger. It was her, and as she kept looking, she could see her eyes soften, and her lips subtly curl into the flicker of a smile.