What Makes You Different Makes You Beautiful (SYTYCW Top 25) (professional edit)

Chapter One

Chapter One

"Rosalind, you are up two and a half pounds this week," the Weight Watchers representative informed Rosalind Porter as she weighed herself on the digital scale. She glanced over at her mother, Agnes Porter, who looked at her with absolute disdain. Rosalind felt tears forming in her eyes as she looked down and stepped off the scale. After spending more than three times in the gym with her personal trainer and following her diet completely to the core that week, she didn't understand how she could have possibly gained almost three pounds.

"I followed the diet and worked out for three hours," Rosalind whispered to Naomi, looking for some emotional support.

"It's okay, honey," Naomi assured her, as she recorded her results on her weight-loss profile. "Next week, you never know what will happen! Are you staying for the meeting?"

"No," her mother spoke up quickly. "Let's go, Rosalind." Her mother stormed to her car, leaving her seventeen-year-old daughter to walk out in shame.

"Maybe next week you can stay," Naomi smiled at her, as Rosalind tied her sneakers and put on her black rain slicker. Rosalind offered her a weak smile, and she walked out into the spring breeze. Rain had started trickling down slowly, and Rosalind cringed, walking to see her mother. She climbed into the car as her mother sat in silence.

"I don't get it," she snapped at her. "I have spent thousands of dollars on diets, personal trainers and special foods for you for over five years now, and you still can't lose any weight. This is unbelievable!"

"Mom, I'm trying my best," Rosalind responded quietly.

"Not hard enough," she belittled her daughter, as she sped out of the parking lot. "You have exactly less than a month to go before your graduation, and I'm going to have to pay the seamstress more money to alter your dress. Do you think your father and I are made of millions?"

"No," Rosalind answered, and Agnes's lips formed in that familiar, disappointing way. Rosalind turned away from her emotionally abusive mother and looked out the window as tears streamed down her pale cheeks.

Agnes Porter valued image very much. Her daughter, Rosalind, had been thin as a child, but since she turned eleven, she had put on weight, year after year. Since the tender age of twelve, she had literally paid thousands of dollars to put her daughter on every diet available including Herbal Magic, South Beach Diet, Dr. Atkins, Slim-Fast, Nutrisystem, and even to a special dietician who injected her daughter with needles three times a week, hoping she would lose the weight. However, she had failed, and she was beyond sick of the time she spent driving her hopeless child from place to place, from trainer to trainer, and getting no results. She was sick and tired of spending all their hard-earned money, and her daughter just being lazy, slouching off her diet.

"Are you eating fast food for lunch?" Agnes probed her daughter, and Rosalind frowned.

"No," she fibbed, but she hated herself. Her comfort was food, and she enjoyed eating out every day with her best friends from high school. Rosalind had never been a fan of eating the healthy foods, including salads, fruits and vegetables. She was your typical picky eater, but her mother didn't understand her. The more she pushed her to lose weight, the less she was motivated to. Her mother had even invested in her seeing a therapist, who had diagnosed Rosalind with moderate depression and low self-esteem.

Rosalind hated herself most days. She hated her looks the most. She thought she was completely ugly and fat, and never felt good about herself at all. There were only two parts of her life that made her happy: spending time with her best friends and excelling at her academics. Through all the negative and berating comments from her mother over the years, Rosalind had remained strong, throwing herself into her schoolwork as a distraction, and her hard work had paid off. She was graduating as valedictorian of her class, with a full scholarship to Baylor University. Rosalind pined for her mother to tell her she was proud of her, for maintaining a 4.0 GPA all through high school, for being her class valedictorian, and for receiving the scholarship, but no encouraging words ever escaped her mouth. She just chose to belittle her daughter every chance she could about her appearance, her social 'phobias,' and the way she was basically a failure in all aspects of her life.