My entire life I have struggled with my weight. Ever since I was a little baby to the senior college student that I am, my weight is still a struggle. I remember being shamed and pointed at for not being one of the “skinny” girls. I grew up ashamed of my image and yearning to look like other girls my age, to look beautiful. From a very young age, I was taught that in order to be considered beautiful and succeed in life I had to be “skinny” and not the “fat” girl that I have always been.
Our society condones fat shaming and allows putting forward the idea that being “skinny” should be considered beautiful. At 20 years old, I have finally come to love my body how it is and have decided that never again will I allow anyone to make me feel inferior because of my weight. However, it is extremely difficult to love your body when you are surrounded by the ideal that being “skinny” is beautiful and being “fat” is ugly and disgusting.
The reality is that I do not look like the plus size models that are being pushed in the media. I am not evenly shaped, I do not have a flat belly, and I am definitely not pear shaped. I am a real “fat” girl, one who wears different sized clothes and has a belly. Yet both the media and society refuse to accept that women can be considered beautiful even when they do not fit beauty standards. The beauty standards that are being pushed are telling all of our young girls that they are not good enough, that they are not beautiful enough. When our girls start questioning their beauty we then tell them that they are beautiful and unique, this after the damage has already been done.
There aren’t many “fat” girls in the media, you can probably count them on one hand. One of the main things that has to change is the lack of portrayal that we have in the media. This lack of portrayal makes girls feel alone and feel like something is wrong with them. If it isn’t hard enough being told by those around you that you aren’t pretty enough, it is hard not seeing people like you in the movies and shows you watch.
Instead of helping us embrace our bodies, we are told how to dress so that our extra weight is not visible. We are told to dress in baggy clothes and dress in clothes that don’t accentuate our bodies. But I refuse to dress in baggy clothes and refuse to dress in clothes that hides my extra weight because if I don’t care others shouldn’t either. For some reason, there is an issue when “fat” girls embrace themselves and stop allowing others to dictate how they feel about their bodies. Whenever “fat” girls embrace their weight we are told not to because we are just being silly when we think we are not beautiful.
I refuse to be told how to feel about my own body and I refuse to accept the beauty standards being pushed. To all of the young girls and boys out there who are struggling with their weight or don’t feel beautiful, I understand what you feel but remember that you are beautiful. Remember that our weight does not define us and that the word "fat" has no meaning, only the meaning that we give it. Remember that beautiful is a term that is defined by us and we do not need to allow others to define it for us.
I am beautiful and so are you.