I'm a relatively scrawny individual. What's worse, I believe, is that I'm a relatively scrawny male (It seems to be much more preferable to be a "scrawny woman' than it is to be a "scrawny man"). Society's view of what people should be sucks; we all know that. Society wants big, muscular men and thin, fit women. When one does not align with these guidelines, they are left feeling like an outsider who needs to conform to be a part of the larger whole. Sometimes these guidelines are helpful, though. It is not healthy to be very overweight NOR very underweight. These can be very dangerous and ought not to be ignored for one's sake.

However, wanting to simply be smaller or larger has too much of a negative effect on our psyches. A lot of the social spotlight recently has been set on those who are overweight, however, there is another side to body acceptance. As a scrawny male, I'm sure I have experiences that are in line with other skinner individuals.

All of my life I have been on the skinner side. Especially as a younger kid, it would really bother me. "Scrawny," "boney," and "weak" were not very foreign words to me growing up. I would love the winter time because I would wear long-sleeved shirts to cover my thinner arms, and to wear jeans to cover my legs as well. I remember never really liking the pool because I would have to take my shirt off and therefore become very self-conscious about my then-visible ribs. It just kind of sucked.

Thankfully, I am much happier with how my body looks in terms of weight and appearance. I will more comfortably wear more revealing clothes and think better about my physical self. However, it still affects me. I count calories. Not to lose weight, but to make sure I am eating an excess amount of calories so I can gain weight. I love to run, but recently I have been holding myself back because losing 500+ calories per run is only going to set my weight gain back.

Are these issues the end of the world? No, of course not. Things are definitely worse than not liking where our weights are at (as long as it is not really affecting our overall health). But, they affect us regardless, and we can help ourselves out. It is fully within each of our own powers to be however we physically want to look. It takes effort though, to lose OR gain weight. We are not all the same, and we all have different problems. I just think it is important to shed light on the feeling of being too skinny because I find it is not usually addressed.

No matter what size we are now and what size we want to be in the future, the important thing is that we work towards our goals little by little. On a physical level, if we want to lose twenty pounds or gain ten, or getting a bigger butt or bigger pectorals, we have the ability to change that. We just need to put time and effort into it. On an emotional level, it is important for everyone to learn to love ourselves regardless if we are skinnier or larger than we would like to be.

No matter what our bodies look like, our essence will always be a constant so we should learn to love that.