Pause and think about how many negative thoughts about yourself enter your head each day. Is the number more than five? Ten? Higher?

In 2011, Glamour magazine asked girls to track how many negative thoughts they had in their head a day. The average number they found from their study came to 13 negative thoughts per day.

This study wasn’t the only one I found. Just Google ‘women and negative thoughts,’ and plenty of links come up. Most of the links all lead to websites with research topics dealing with pessimistic thoughts women have about themselves.

It’s impressive how many links I found, and I applaud the media outlets recognizing women’s value and worth to our society. At the same time, I think it’s alarming even after so much reassurance, women still seem to reject themselves.

What might not be shocking is upon Googling ‘men and negative thoughts,’ nothing comes up in terms of studies. So, does this mean men have zero negative thoughts about themselves daily?

Most likely not. The USA Today published an article in February of last year, comparing men’s and women’s confidence levels. Over and over again, men’s confidence levels about various aspects of their lives were higher than women’s.

For example, 82 percent of women feel at any given time they should lose weight, according to the article. On the other hand, 63 percent of men agree with the statement.

The differences don’t stop there. The USA Today also found women spend about six and a half hours a week on their appearances, versus their counterparts spending two hours less per week on theirs.

The biggest question coming to my mind is how do we as a society stop promoting the notion that appearance means everything and help others embrace being unique?

Glamour said it best in their article: “Silence the inner mean girl in you.“

Try to recognize when a mean thought is entering your mind, and squash it.

It’s not a process which can be done overnight. Being unique and embracing the qualities which separate you from others takes time to accept. One thing which may be helpful is changing a little day by day, which can lead to increased happiness, and higher confidence levels.