To every teenager, young person, and parents

    Anna was in her room with her phone. On the screen, Mia, a famous influencer, was smiling with perfect skin and big, shining eyes.

    “Today I’ll show you how to make your face look smaller and how to look more beautiful in photos,” she said in the video. Millions of people watched her videos every day. Slowly, her idea of beauty became everyone’s idea of beauty.

    “Why can’t I look like that?” Anna whispered. She opened her camera and took a photo. “Too round.” Delete.

    “My eyes look weird.” Delete. 

    “My face looks big.” Delete. The room was quiet except for the soft sound of Anna’s phone.

    At school, a colorful poster hung on the wall in the hallway. Many students stopped to look at it. At the top, it said:

 School Photography

          Contest 

Theme: 

      Warm Smiles

Students would have one week to prepare their photo. Each student could submit one picture of the smile they felt was their best. The photos would be displayed in the school auditorium like a photography exhibition, and students could walk around to see everyone’s pictures. The students' excited voices filled the hallway.  

    "Wait, so everyone’s photo will be displayed?” one student asked.

    “Yes!” another replied.

    “Like a real gallery!” 

    “And people can vote for their favorite photo,” someone added. 

    “That means the most popular smile might win!”

 Anna stood quietly in front of the poster. “A photo of the best smile,” she murmured to herself. She imagined the exhibition hall full of photos. What if her picture was there? What if everyone looked at it? What if they thought she was beautiful? Anna clenched her hands slightly. “ If I win this contest,” she thought, “People will finally see that I'm beautiful.” She immediately imagined the perfect photo. Perfect lighting. Perfect angle. Perfect face.

    “Today I’ll show you how to take the perfect selfie,” Mia said. “First, use soft lighting. Then tilt your face a little like this.” 

    Anna quickly grabbed her phone. “Okay… lighting first,” she murmured. She turned on the desk lamp. Click. She looked at the photo, but she didn't think it was perfect. Delete.

    That evening, Anna rushed home after school. She threw her backpack onto the chair and opened her phone. On the screen was Mia, the influencer she followed every day. Mia smiled brightly in her newest video. 

    The room slowly grew darker. Photos filled Anna’s phone. But none of them felt right. Anna stared at the screen, frustrated. “Why can’t I look like Mia?” she whispered. “I’m still not good enough.” 

    Suddenly, she felt very tired. “No matter what I do, I don't look perfect,” she thought. She put the phone down and sighed. The photography contest was only one week away. But Anna still didn’t have a single photo she liked. 

    “I can’t even take one good photo,” she muttered. Feeling frustrated, Anna decided to talk to her friends. “Maybe they can help me think of an idea for the photography contest,” she murmured to herself.

    The next day, Anna went to the gym to find her friend. Lucy was practicing badminton. Lucy’s hair was messy. Her face was red from running. But she was smiling. Lucy jumped and hit the shuttlecock again. Anna watched quietly for a moment. Lucy didn’t look like the girls Anna saw on social media. She wasn’t wearing makeup. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail. But somehow, she still looked attractive. She looked strong, healthy, and full of energy.

“ Lucy,” Anna asked, “don’t you worry about how you look when you play?”

    Lucy blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

    “Like… your hair, your face, the sweat…”

     Lucy shrugged. “Sometimes… a little, but when I'm busy playing, I am having fun, and that makes me happy,” Lucy said. 

    Anna did not find an answer from Lucy, so she went to the classroom, because she knew her friend, Tom, always sat in the classroom before the lesson started. Tom had his headphones on and was quietly listening to music. 

    Anna sat down next to him. “What are you listening to?” she asked. 

    Tom smiled and showed her his phone. A Korean girl group was dancing in the music video.  

    “You like this kind of music?” Anna asked.  

    Tom nodded. “Yeah, I really like their songs.”

    Just then, a few classmates walked by. One of them laughed.

     “Tom, why are you listening to girl groups?”

    “Shouldn’t boys listen to something cooler?”

         Another student added, “Yeah, aren’t boys supposed to like sports or something?” 

    Tom laughed softly. “Music doesn’t have a gender,” he said. Tom smiled. 

  “Doesn’t it bother you when people judge you?” Anna asked.  “Sometimes it does,” he said, “but I still like what I like.”

     The next few days, Anna became more and more anxious. At lunchtime, the cafeteria was noisy and full of laughter. The smell of warm food filled the air. Lucy sat across from Anna and opened her lunchbox.

  “Aren’t you eating today?” Lucy asked. 

    Anna quickly looked down and forced a small smile. 

“I’m not very hungry,” she said softly. 

But her stomach quietly growled.

“ You said that yesterday, too."

Anna didn’t answer. She just stared at her food.

    Later that afternoon, Anna sat in class. The teacher’s voice sounded far away, like it was coming from another room. Her head felt heavy. Her hands were cold. She pressed her lips together.

Suddenly, “Anna?” Tom’s voice cut through the silence.

    She blinked. Everything slowly came back into focus. 

    Tom leaned closer, looking worried. “You don’t look okay,” he said.

    Anna looked down and shook her head.

    Lucy sighed and quickly reached into her bag. “Here,” she said, handing Anna an apple. “You need to eat.”

    Anna hesitated for a second, then took it. She ate slowly. After a few moments, her hands felt warmer. Her head felt clearer.

    After class, Lucy and Tom walked with Anna into the hallway. 

    Lucy suddenly stopped walking. “ Okay,” she said, crossing her arms, “What’s going on?” 

    Anna hesitated. “I just…” she began quietly. “I just want my photo to be perfect.”  

    Tom tilted his head. “Why?” 

    Anna’s voice became smaller. “If my photo is beautiful… people will think I’m beautiful too and they will be kind to me.”   

    For a moment, no one spoke. Lucy’s expression softened. Tom looked at Anna, not judging,  just listening.

    A few days later, the photography exhibition finally arrived. The school auditorium was bright and full of people. Rows of photos were displayed on whiteboards. Students walked slowly from one picture to another. Some pointed. Some whispered. Some took photos of the photos. Anna stood at the entrance, holding her phone tightly. 

    Students whispered: “She’s so pretty.” “He looks good.”

    Anna looked closer. One photo looked familiar. It looked like the kind of photos she always saw online. Anna remembered Eva at school, but her skin was not always that smooth. Her face did not look the same. Anna blinked. The photo felt… different from real life, but no one seemed to notice. Anna looked around. Many other photos showed real smiles. Some were funny. Some were warm. But people did not stop to look at those. Instead, her classmates focused on the people who looked like social media models. Most comments about those sounded the same: “She’s beautiful.” “He looks good.” “This one is cute.”

    Anna frowned. “The theme is warm smiles…” she whispered. “Then why is everyone only looking for social media-style faces?” She looked at Eva again. 

    Eva didn’t look like herself in the photo. She was not worried, but somehow, her edited photo was getting all the attention. Anna suddenly understood something. People were not really looking at smiles.

    They were looking for the kind of beauty they saw on social media. Anna felt something was not right. Instead of appreciating warm smiles, everyone was being influenced by artificial beauty ideals.

    Lucy stepped next to Anna. “ This contest is a problem,” she said.

    Tom looked at the photos and the students who were admiring them. “It’s not just people,” he said slowly.

    “It’s the system.” Anna frowned.

    “What do you mean?” Tom pointed at the rules.

    “Students vote for their favorite photo.” Lucy nodded.

    “So people choose what media influences them to like.” Anna looked at these pictures again.

Vote. Favorite. Popular.

    A thought slowly formed. “So this contest…” she said, “…is not really about smiles.” “It’s about popularity.”

    “And appearance,” Lucy added quietly.

   Anna turned around. More students were standing nearby. Some were looking at their own photos. Some looked disappointed.

    “I spent hours editing mine,” one girl said. “But I still don't look like the social media example.”

  Another student sighed. “I deleted so many photos before choosing one.”

    Anna felt something shift inside her. This was not just her problem. They were all trying to look like something they saw on social media. Perfect faces. Perfect smiles. Perfect pictures. And no matter how hard they tried, it never felt like enough.