A few months ago, I was asked a very interesting question: “If you were a song, what song would you be?”

To be completely honest, this question has been stuck in my mind for far longer than I’d like to admit. My answer came easy: I’m probably a sappy Ed Sheeran love song. But in the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to be “Hot Girl” by Megan Thee Stallion or “Thank U, Next” by Ariana Grande. Yet, I’d never give myself this title. I wanted the confidence and energy in these songs. I wanted to be the “hot girl” we see on TikTok and Instagram, but I couldn’t be, or I simply wasn’t. But why?

At first, this thought was very discouraging. I often chalked it up to my style, hair or makeup that prevented me from being one of the confident “hot girls” I always wanted to be. However, I soon realized, my issue wasn’t that I didn’t spend all my money on trendy clothes and makeup. It was just me. 

This led to two conclusions. 

First, the “hot girls” on my Instagram and TikTok are hot because of their confidence. The place where we all go wrong isn’t that we aren’t “hot girls” but that we, as girls, guys and nonbinary individuals, don’t believe we are. If we go out in our best outfits or walk into a room with our heads held high, we become that person; we become the hot girl. Second, even if we aren’t the ideal “hot girls” we see on social media, it doesn’t really matter anyway — Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl” and “Girls in the Hood” aren’t about an ideal type of person, but just about confidence and having fun. 

For so long, I have wanted to be like the “hot girls.” I wanted the Instagram hype, the outfits and the confidence. I realize now that although I may be a sappy Ed Sheeran song and very far off from a Megan Thee Stallion song, I am still a “hot girl,” and I still do “hot s—.”