Michelle Icard, known as Michelle in the Middle on social media, is an author and public speaker dedicated to helping parents raise their children. So when she overheard three teenage girls talking negatively about their classmates, she had to step in.
“I’m crawling out of my skin sitting next to three very pretty, very boisterous, horribly behaved young teenage girls at the Cotswold Starbucks,” Icard wrote on Facebook on Sunday. She noted that the girls were laughing at another teen who’d chosen to sing a song about loneliness for their school’s talent show, and they proceeded to make fun of their friends who had gotten them “crappy” presents in the past.
“It is taking all my restraint to keep from exploding so I’m complaining to you all instead,” Icard wrote to her followers.
However, about an hour later, she posted a follow-up status. After leaving the coffee shop and pondering the situation, she went back: “I ordered three mini frappucinos on my mobile app and headed back up to Starbucks. They were still there. I walked up to them and said, ‘Hi Girls. You don’t know me but it looks like you’re here studying and I wrote you a note of encouragement.’ I handed them the card and walked away.”
Icard’s card has “do well” written on the front, with a heart, and it begins by complimenting the girls on their appearances. However, she quickly gets to the point, saying, “I wish your kindness matched your pretty exteriors.” She goes on to deliver a message everyone could afford to take to heart: “You are smart and you are pretty. It would take nothing from you to also be kind.”
Read her full post below, and learn more about the exchange at People.com.
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