So you're in the gym, you just got done with a great workout and you're feeling empowered and accomplished. You wipe off your sweat and head over to the treadmill to finish up with some cardio, and another girl around your age steps up on the one adjacent to you. You can't help but notice and cringe at the speed she can maintain, the even tan of her legs, and the muscle tone she looks to naturally have. You find yourself aiming your cringed expression at your own legs. The same legs you were so proud of a few seconds ago are now stubby, pale, and grotesque.
You applied to your favorite boutique across town over a month ago and have patiently waited for a call back. When you leave the gym, you notice their instagram put up a photo of their "newest addition," who is someone you know that had put in an application at least three weeks after you did. You can't stop yourself before thinking "What did she do that I didn't?" and the most painful of questions one asks themself, "Is it because she's better than me?"
These comparisons enter a woman's mind several times, daily. It is an epidemic, and it is bringing us down. It isn't helpful to you, and it isn't helpful to the ones you point the finger at. Why? That girl you envied in the gym could've had just gone through a bad break up and working out is the only thing that keeps her tears from pouring over.
That girl that got the job may have a crazy outgoing personality that the shop was looking for or honestly just had better experience. Instead of overcoming the awful competitive voices in our heads, we succumb to them. We let ourselves think the ones we envy are the ones we should despise. It keeps us from having more friends, and it keeps us from having a healthy love for ourselves.
Never determine your self-worth by comparing yourself to someone else. Think about it, when is the last time you appreciated another girls beauty? Her accomplishments?
Don't worry, I'll wait.
Women should not be out to get each other. Though many of us aren't as expressive with our distaste of others, they are the ones that are mainly just self-destructive. If you constantly look to others to determine you self-worth you begin a cycle of negativity and for some of us, ends in depression.
Life is NOT a beauty pageant. It is NOT AND NEVER WILL BE a competition. We live in a time where can be whoever we want to be, take advantage of that. Don't look to Instagram for what some girl with a million random followers she probably paid for is wearing or what Kylie Jenner's favorite lipsticks are. Be yourself. Love yourself. Because you are the only you out there.
Stop frowning when that girl in your 10 a.m is sporting Tory Burch earrings while you wear a random pair you bought from Claire's three years ago.
Stop judging yourself when you bring an off-brand purse from Target to the tailgate while everyone else has a Rebecca Minkoff fresh out of the box.
Stop putting yourself down when that one girl at the party has what you think is the perfect figure.
We are all beautiful, in every possible way. Please stop putting each other down. I have seen far too many women and young girls alike lose what could be fantastic friendships out of jealousy that turned into pure hatred. Never judge a girl by the way she looks. We are always preaching this to boys, but we are the main offenders.
Love yourself, love each other.
1 Peter 3:3-6- "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful."
