The Beauty of Self Affirmation is a compilation of profound information written relatably by a teenager for teenagers. Benjamin Gideon, nineteen years old, has experienced abandonment, endured depression, and has come out the other end in remarkable fashion. “The way I was looking at the world needed to be changed in order to save my life”, he quotes. From personal experiences to in-depth analysis, Benjamin screams relatable emotions so genuine you would believe there were tears upon the page he wrote upon. “The world needs to be exposed to the information, middle school students and High School students need to be exposed to this information. They don’t teach you this stuff in school but they need to”, he tells me. With a primary theme of ‘just because everybody disagrees with you does not mean you’re incorrect’, Benjamin explains the fear of being ostracized, the benefit in defying the majority when one’s mental health is at stake, and most importantly how he does it and how he holds the confidence to continue doing so. With remarkable wisdom that will have you reconsidering the intelligence level of an entire age group, Benjamin reconstructs conventional methods of viewing the world for individuals who are depressed, individuals who look down on themselves, and individuals who are not content with the person they see in the mirror. Though relatable to seemingly every age group, Benjamin stresses, “If you are in High School or going into High School you need to read this book. My life would have been tremendously easier if I had understood this information at the age of sixteen”. It’s never easy to defy the majority; through unique practices Benjamin explains how it’s never been cooler to be an outcast and shifts the connotation of the word by doing so. After all, you believing something nobody else does doesn’t make you’re crazy, it makes you an individual, and Benjamin firmly believes it’s time to start embracing that.
