Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

I am still reading the book "Nineteen Minutes," by Jodi Picoult.  In the beginning of the book, it seems like one of the characters, Josie has a near-perfect life. She is a "pretty, popular, straight-A student".  Other people at her school are jealous of everything she has, a rich, successful mom, a cute boyfriend, a seat at the "cool" table for lunch. Everyone feels like Josie has the ideal life.  That is, everyone except Josie. Inside, Josie is constantly freaking out about her life.  She feels like nobody knows the "real" Josie, and that now, she has no way of going back.  She is so paranoid that somebody will find out that she is fake, that she keeps pills stored by her bed, so she has a "back-up plan" of killing herself.  

We always hear the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover". Yet, everyday, we constantly judge people. We automatically assume that pretty people have a good life, and that people who don't have a lot of friends have a boring life, and so on. But do we actually know what is going on in their lives? Is it fair to judge them based on the little things we know? It isn't. It is not fair to assume that just because Josie is popular or pretty, she has no problems.  And that is what Josie is thinking. Though I do not believe she should kill herself, I understand why she is considering it. Everyone thinks that they know everything about her. But they don't know everything, and if they did, she is afraid everyone would hate her. Josie has to realize that people love her no matter what. She is the only one that has doubts in her.