Negative body image affects men and women in a number of different ways. We've grown up for so long seeing beautiful women and handsome men on television and thinking that we need to attain that same image. There is also this stigma that body image only affects people with eating disorders or people who are overweight. Each person battles with their own image, and some let it defeat them. Here's my story about how I'm winning the battle.

Cheerleader.

Here we are, me and my best friend on one of the best days of our lives. In most towns, we were sitting on top of the popularity totem pole, or so it felt like it. I was so confident in high school. I was friendly, nerdy and good looking. I thought confidence was something that would never leave me.

Freshman Year.

The first home football game! We were a couple of months into college, but we still looked like babies in the eyes of our peers older than us. Within the first couple of months, I couldn't find a place to fit in. I didn't make the Club Cheerleading squad and I was crushed. For ten years, all I knew was cheerleading, now I had to adjust to college life without my safety net.

Freshman 15?

They warn you about it, but they don't tell you how your body is going to change. Here I am the week after Freshman year came to a close. My clothes were starting to feel tighter, I saw my muscles loose definition, and of course I started to notice my beer gut. Whatever.

The Funk.

It was at this point in my life that my self-confidence slipped away from me, and I am still playing hide-and-seek with her.

I'm sure that most universities are like this, but mine in particular is full of beautiful people. Seriously, the most beautiful people. I felt less than average around all of my female peers, and it took its toll on me.

I would always think, 'damn, why can't I look like her?'

Then...

Bare Naked Ladies changed me.

No, I'm not talking about the band. I'm talking about this great group of people above. I accidentally joined the best club at my school. As our mission statement reads, Bare Naked Ladies is a group dedicated to promoting self-love, acceptance, and confidence, as well as understanding and positivity for all.

It was these people who taught me how to love myself again.

(Yes, I am the one doing the handstand.)

Here's a secret!

You can and should love your body.

The most important thing that this club taught me, is that its okay to think I'm right just the way I am. It wasn't easy, but slowly I learned to love parts of me I never thought about and ignore superficial blurs like worrying about what size the girl in front of me is probably wearing and being sad about my pant size.

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

-Theodore Roosevelt

These are the words that me, as well as most of the girls in my club, choose to live by. It's time to stop hating our bodies, while judging others, and instead embracing everyone's beauty together. We have this theory, the Shine Theory. (Thanks, Ches). I shine, you shine. It's the idea that positive attitudes and positive energy are contagious. It makes you, as well as the people around you, feel amazing!

You can only love another once you learn to love yourself.

Shout-out to Dan, part II!

Not only is my club amazing, but I also found this guy. His carefree attitude is something I admire, especially when it comes to appearance. He taught me that if I feel good, who else cares? If they don't like the way I am, they can look the other way. I was not put on this planet for other people to look at, and I am worth so much more than a number on a scale.

Where am I now?

I'm still learning to love my body, but now I have helped girls start to love their bodies as well. Going into my senior year at the greatest university, I hope to impact a lot of young women on our campus and in our town. We've grown up with this image of what we should be, and we hate ourselves when the expectation fails. So, along with Bare Naked Ladies, I will empower women to embrace self-love, because we need our brains to be working at the highest capacity; we don't have time to think about stupid things.

And..

Here's that time I met Whitney Way Thore from TLC's My Big Fat Fabulous Life!