In today's society we are told that we have to look, talk, act, and be a certain way if we want to fit in with the crowd. To be considered pretty and wifey material you have to be “skinny,” tan, and great with kids. For a man to be considered sexy he has to have an eight pack, be over six feet tall, and have a beard. Starting in your middle school ages, kids are told they are too ugly, fat, stupid, and many other degrading things. This impacts their self-esteem dramatically and makes them believe they have to change who they are. It doesn’t just stop after your teen years; a lot of struggling with our image follows us into adulthood. We go through years torturing ourselves in hopes that someone will notice us and tell us that we are “perfect.” Well, for those who are reading this right now going through that, you cannot be perfect; there is no such thing as being perfect.
When someone tells you that you are fat, shake it off because you are beautiful the way you are. When someone tells you that you’re stupid, ignore them because you are smarter than you think. You think you can find happiness in trying to do the things that people say you need to do, but to be happy in life you have to love yourself and be confident in your own skin. Is that selfish? Hell yeah it is, but who cares? Being body positive is so important when you are trying to achieve happiness. Society makes it seem like it’s a big deal to have the “beach bod,” or to have big boobs. You look at a cover for a magazine and see these celebrities who are Photoshopped to look perfect. Those images you see all the time for “goals” are not what those people actually look like. A little bit of lighting, contouring, and posing can change the way someone looks dramatically. I did a photo shoot one weekend that was supposed to help me embrace my body, and during the shoot I was having so much fun with myself, the photographers, and the other girls involved. Two days after this “Body Positive” shoot they posted pictures for us to see. Before looking at the pictures I was so proud of my body and I thought I was in really good shape. Once I opened the file and looked through the many pictures I realized that I wasn’t that hot. I had fat, and marks all over my body. I was super pale, my nose was huge, and I have a big forehead. After an hour of crying I realized that I shouldn’t be thinking those things, because all of that stuff described me. The fat shows that I love food, my forehead is big obviously because my brain is so big (I know that’s not realistic, but hey, it made me feel better). This photo shoot was to make me feel better about myself, and after seeing the other girls in the group comment on my photos saying I was hot, and that I "slayed" it, I felt better.
That is one of the problems when it comes to being confident in yourself; you always have someone who is trying to tear you down. We think that by degrading each other it will make us feel better, but we need to start complimenting each other and encouraging one another. Building our confidence up instead of breaking each other down.We start to grow and we see our bodies changing every day, and that is natural. You can't be the same your entire life. Love those changes, and embrace them. Who's to say that you are not beautiful? No one can tell you that you are not perfect the way you are.
