I started the project Self-Reflection in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was a teenager in and out of high school, and I felt isolated and lost in my own life, as I’m sure many others did. There was this need I had to release some of the anxieties and depression that had been suppressed for such a long time, and the only way I could think to do that was to write it all out on paper.

I started writing poetry every day and soon realized just how healing it was for processing my grief and for questioning my own patterns of thinking that were causing me more harm than good. These are only a few of the poems in my collection from the past few years. While they are very intimate and personal, I feel that the themes within the poems could be relatable for people, especially young girls, and bring some comfort in knowing they aren’t alone with these thoughts and experiences of loss, pain, and body insecurities.