Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love

by Jonathan Van Ness

Because when you have this much personality, there’s a fear lurking just below the surface: If you knew all of me, you wouldn’t love me anymore. You would no longer want me as your new best friend.

I understand this fear so deeply, but also, no Jonathan, I still want to be your new best friend.

Joy can live beside sorrow.

shame is the feeling of, “If you knew all there was to know about me, you wouldn’t love me anymore,”

but I want more queer stories that are light and not full of pain and abuse.

All I had to lose was the moment, and a moment is something that we should never let go to waste.

You try being an eight-year-old violin-playing gymnastics-obsessed geode-collecting stamp connoisseur who has to have all those things with him in order to feel safe and nurtured.

She showed me from a young age what grit and determination look like when you are the only one who believes in yourself.

I’ve never been attracted to a woman, but Natacha just had this sexy swag that made my titties perk.

The monster under the bed that had been chasing me for so long, that I had been so desperate to avoid, had finally caught me.

I honestly felt as if there was no air in the room as I read this.

At the end of the day, the people we let in our space affect our ability to get to where we want to go, so if they’re in the way of realizing your potential, it’s okay to disconnect because you must choose yourself. I used to think that was selfish but really it’s just healthy.

The media, celebrity comparison, and the beauty industry—these are all worth billions of dollars and cause people unspeakable pain and trauma.