To the fashion and celebrity gossip magazines of the early 2000s, and to the modern age of social media,
When I was growing up, you told me that my body wasn't okay. I had to achieve the body of a model and dream of wearing wings like a Victoria's Secret angel, and I did. Except mine were made of fat and skin, drooping from my arms and not extruding from the delicate curvatures of my back with a matching lingerie set. I had a tail like a mermaid all little girls fantasized to be, but instead of scales and gills, I had cellulite and no thigh gap. I have curves but not at the measurements you made everyone desire. As time went on you molded the standards for sizing, and it has changed for the worst. Can't you see all the wrong that you have done? Can you hear the cries from teenagers and young adults who can't stand to live because you hate their imperfect, yet beautiful bodies?
Today you market these bodies as beautiful, but it's obvious you do not think this. Today the body you so openly hated is considered "beautiful" or as my peers like to say "thicc", don't believe that you can make up for what you have done so easily. What about the beautiful lives we have lost due to your societal pressures? This is a problem that you have created, and you will need to step up and make a more productive change. Sexualizing the human body from the first morally acceptable day that you could, yet you didn't think this would cause any effect, or you did and just don't want to own up to the basic fact of psychology. Children easily learn from what is called modeling. This is how I learned to hate myself; this is how you taught the world to hate beauty.
According to The National Eating Disorders Association, "Numerous correlational and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating among women." This further makes my point, you have shaped me to hate myself, but now you are trying to build me up as if you're some superhero. I don't want you in my children's lives, but I know it's as inevitable as them crying as they are birthed. You are the mean older sister I never desired.
To the countless victims you have acquired over the years, I have things to say. You are not alone; you're not the only one suffering. Whether it be from things like depression or anxiety, or disorder such as anorexia or body dysmorphia, you are not alone, and we can't let the media get away with this. You are strong. You are beautiful.
The media needs to be open, and the owners of these magazines need to realize the psychological impacts they truly have. Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, any guardian needs to sit down with their child and let them know they are beautiful the way they are. We can't let another beautiful life fall victim to the media.
