article_snippet.sent: Picture perfect: 18-year-old Syracuse painting student LaNia Roberts recently gave a speech at  Syracuse University on learning to love one's self unconditionally .
article_snippet.sent: The artist: LaNia specializes in self-portraits, which LaNia began painting in high school .
article_snippet.sent: LaNia also began painting self-portraits as a means of embracing LaNia own appearance and finding beauty within every flaw. '
article_snippet.sent: However, LaNia paintings tell a different story. '
article_snippet.sent: When it comes to painting a self-portrait, I could turn those things that I didn't really love into something that was beautiful not only to me, but to others,' LaNia told Cosmo. '
article_snippet.sent: Focusing more on LaNia artistic flair than LaNia physical appearance, LaNia became more confident, more outspoken, and vowed to take more risks.
article_snippet.sent: LaNia was accepted to a highly-selective art program at The Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts and even had the confidence to confess to a man that LaNia thought a man that she thought he was 'the most beautiful man on this damn earth was 'the most beautiful man on this damn earth.'
highlights_snippet.sent: LaNia Roberts is a freshman painting major at Syracuse University, in New York, and specializes in creating colorful self-portraits .
  