Since 2004, Dove, a company known for their hair and body products, "has been changing the conversation about women." They have made it their mission to encourage women of all ethnicities, backgrounds, ages, sizes, and looks that every single woman is beautiful.
Third grade was when I first experienced bullying. I was not pretty enough. I did not have the right clothes. And I was too big. To top it off, my body was changing, making me the first girl in my grade to go through puberty. Everything that little girls could make fun of was presented to them in the form of a young Hannah. That's when I began judging myself harshly. Nothing was right with my body, and this battle of self-hate and dissatisfaction went on until my freshman year.
I do not know when we start evaluating our appearances, judging them worthy or not, but I do know we blame society for its perception of what is beautiful. I know that before I was bullied, my younger self, did not know that flat stomachs and slim thighs were "praise worthy." However, it seems that girls are becoming more and more aware of their appearances at younger ages. Dove has taken notice of this trend and has released body positive videos to build females up and not tear them down.
Dove's most recent video uses young women as their example, but the message transcends across ages: we all have things that we would like to change about ourselves—hair, height, eye color, skin tone—but it is on us to inform girls that they are beautiful and that we need to accept our appearances.
It seems like a simple task, but it is so easy for one negative thought to cloud your mind and take over your entire outlook of your appearance. One thought about how you would like to have a smaller nose can domino into hate for other parts of your body. But no matter how hard it is to see sometimes, we need to continuously tell ourselves we are beautifully and uniquely made.
This change starts with ourselves—telling ourselves that we are beautiful. I have done this since my freshman year of high school, and at first, it was hard, but it has just become ingrained in my morning routine.
Wake up.
Go to the bathroom.
Brush teeth.
Wash face.
Tell myself I'm beautiful.
Get dressed.
It starts with you, and then when you are secure, you can start spreading the body positivity love. The fight never ends. I still struggle at times, but I continue to keep my head up and tell myself and others that we are beautiful.
