“Girls with Cherry Lipstick Smiles” by Giselle Ponce-Lucatero is about finding beauty in being quirky and unique. In this piece, the narrator describes the girls who saunter by with “soft, clear faces and cherry lipstick smiles,” and she details everything they do. These girls are the ones with boyfriends, impeccable tastes in fashion, and designer clothes. As the plot progresses, the narrator decides that she does not have to be like those girls to be worthy. The narrator finds beauty in herself, despite how different she is from the girls with cherry lipstick smiles.
I found this piece to be a powerful reminder about the beauty of diversity. As teenagers, it is important to remember that beauty is more than what is popular. The girls who rule the school may be beautiful, but that does not mean that the girls who aren't like them are not worthy of the same praise. Beauty is abstract, not a concrete definition, and everyone is gorgeous in their own way.