LOVE YOURSELF
First and foremost, you have to, and need to love yourself. If you don't love yourself, how can you love someone else. How could you not love yourself? You are YOU!! I tell you though. You can be your own worst critic. No matter how much someone tells you, you are smart, your special, you are beautiful, I love you. But until YOU see it, and get it in YOUR mind. Those words are meaningless!
Learn to look in the mirror, and start looking at the things you love, not the things you don't. You are a very special person. You are the ONLY you on this whole planet! Learn how to believe in yourself. Never look to someone to make you happy. Only YOU are in charge of your happiness. Only YOU can give yourself true happiness. When you truly love yourself, you will not put up with less. Because you will feel that you deserve the best.