I have a confession to make. I am such a body positive person except on the days when I absolutely hate the way I look. It seems ironic and hypocritical because I want everyone to love everything about themselves, even on the days when I cannot find one good thing about myself. I've struggled with loving myself in my entirety since I can remember. I always managed to multiply my small issues by 100 and create huge problems that weren't even problems in the first place. I don't really know when I evolved into a person that stopped caring what others had to say about myself, but most days I am that confident, give no cares, person.
Most days.
But on the days when I am not, I just can't keep my eyes off the "flaws". I say "flaws" because they're not flaws. When did we decide that any part of us was a flaw? When did we start caring about the scars and marks that started appearing? When did we start worrying about the right hair and the wrong waist? When did we start believing that we had to change to be happy? At one point, body goals became looking like a specific model of a person given to us by someone else. At some point in our lives, we started dreading the fitting rooms and mirrors and started creating mountains out of molehills that others created before us.
I refuse to be unhappy with all my "flaws". I refuse to view the sides of myself that others see as bad as bad because they're not. There is literally nothing wrong with us. Not the cellulite, not the stretch marks, not the extra 10 pounds that come and go. There is literally no flaw in our selves that wasn't placed there by someone or something telling us that they were things we should be concerned about.
You have to love yourself more than the beauty campaigns tell you to. You have to love yourself on the days you remember to do your eyebrows and in the months that you don't. You have to love yourself on the days you have to buy new pants a size bigger than the week before. You have to love yourself on the days you find a new scar or mark on a body that is yours forever.
There are a million people trying to sell you the idea that you need to be different. A million campaigns meant to make you feel empowered while buying their products to help you reach your better self when your better self is just your happiest self. There are no flaws in people's beauty, only flaws in the way we choose to see ourselves and judge ourselves based on unrealistic standards set by people who don't really matter.
Be your happiest self and forget your "flaws".
