Spring break has come and gone and now all we're left with is bad tan lines and a full camera roll of bikini pics which you think you love. Then the process begins; editing for social media. Don’t act like you don’t do it too; we’ve all done it. In the car ride back to campus you sit there zooming in on every part of your body. Pictures that you once thought were cute basic candid now looks like Weight Watcher AD.
“My armpit fat is sticking out!”
“Look how fat my stomach is!”
I’ll admit it I over analyze each and every picture of myself before it goes on social media. I find myself stressing out over what other girls will say about my picture. Will they think I look fat? I worry that my imperfect body will become locker room conversation, passing comments between friends. I’m not alone in this either.
“Promise me I don’t look fat”
“Is this a good filter?”
“Should I not post it?”
Why do we do this? Why should we as girls care so much about looking skinny for the Instagram? Recently my guy friends caught my friend group dissecting a beach pic. “Can you guys stop fucking criticizing yourself. No one gives a shit.” Yes, this comment was slightly aggressive, but in a way it was also extremely comforting. We all looked up, un-zooming from the sliver of fat we were over analyzing, and reconsidered what we were wasting our time on.
In that moment, I began to question why I was so concerned with other peoples opinions on my body. After all, it is my body. So what I don’t look like a model, everybody’s body is different. What I’m trying to say is that we all need to appreciate our bodies more. We need to stop editing, cropping, and worrying about others opinions. Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat lead us to over analyze our imperfections. How can we expect anyone to appreciate how we look if we aren’t even satisfied with ourselves? In that moment, I realized that being comfortable in your own body is sexier than any thigh gap.
My friends and I realized that day that no one cares about your lack of thigh gap. I’m not saying that people don’t judge what you post online because unfortunately some people live for it. There will always be the wannabe mean girls is sitting, waiting, perched in their BMW’s for the unedited picture to the surface. But you know what? Who cares what they think. If those people get happiness from judging other people's imperfections, then sucks to be them.Be happy with yourself, embrace the imperfections, and don’t worry about the mean girls, they probably wish they had the same confidence.
