Throughout the years, I have been really learning how to truly love myself. Specifically my body. And that's exactly what it is, my body. It is my body and love it. So over the years, I have learned to block out judgement; moreover, I have realized to ignore the over photo shopped photos on every social media. I know I do not look like those girls. And more importantly, I don't want to look like those girls. I want to be me; and this body that I have is me.

For the longest time, I struggled with worrying about my looks and body image. Have you ever felt like everyone is looking at you? Ever think they are immediately making judgements on how you look? I use to think this all the time. I would spend an endless amount of time getting dressed, standing in front of the mirror thinking about all the negative things people could say. I would try at least 5 outfits on making sure I felt completely comfortable and confident in my body. My confidence was shot.

I would see skinny girls everywhere: from movies to photographs of actresses I "looked" up to. It wasn't until much later, I learned these images aren't realistic. In high school, I was a three season athlete, a pretty good one at that, so I have a lot of muscle. At least when I was younger, I always wondered by I didn't look like everyone else who was skinny. This made me self conscious about my athletic build.

I definitely was never skinny and looking back, I'm perfectly okay with that. I don't want to be skinny. I love my body. And trust me when I say, once you learn to love every aspect of yourself, everything immediately seems better. Like I always say, if you aren't happy with something in your life, make a change. That change may be anything as big to a healthier lifestyle to as small as an attitude.

For me, I needed to change my attitude. I needed to know I was beautiful inside and out. I needed to change my attitude toward my own body. If I didn't change, my attitude to a more positive one, I don't think I would have learned to love myself completely. A couple years ago, I constantly worried and wondered if people were judging my body. Now, I don't care. I don't care what anyone thinks about my body. It's my body and I love it. Self love is so important. You are who you are. So please if you aren't happy, make that change. You need to learn to love every aspect of yourself before you can love anyone or anything else. Lastly, never forget to surround yourself with people who love and support you. They will always be there for you.