There are girls who are not perfectly skinny, nor are they perfectly plump.
They fall into that awkward middle place where they still have a muffin top that spills over their jeans when they sit down but as soon as they stand up straight they can pass for "thin."
Being that girl sucks.
One minute you can cherish your body for what it is, but the next you are still feeling insecure about the size of your thighs as the summer season approaches. It turns into this crazy, vicious cycle of highs and lows that you can never seem to escape- mostly because society tells us that unless our bodies aren't perfect, that they will never be good enough.
On one side, you feel the pressure to be fit.
Be the best you can be. You can push yourself to workout, eat clean, and burn as many calories in a day as possible. You can even track your fitness on a watch, visualizing the calories lost and steps taken so that you maximize your time and energy by making sure you're losing weight with every opportunity.
But on the other side, is the girl who is body positive.
Confident in herself. Someone who loves the thickness of her thighs and the stretch marks that map out the history of not only her body, but her life. Someone who understands that cellulite is a common occurrence in over 80% of women and that she has done nothing wrong to her body for it to be this way. Her body is natural and beautiful.
So how do we overcome the two tugging sides? How do we switch off the response to criticism, the fear of not fitting in, and the horror of being shamed for how we are made?
We let go.
Let go of the ideas, standards, and pressures of being the perfect girl with the perfect body. Its easier said then done, but as soon as you let go you will be free to move forward.
Free to embrace your natural beauty. Free to embrace those scars, the freckles, the hair, the teeth, and the body you were born with and all of its perfect imperfections. Free to embrace that you are beautiful and desirable. Free to believe that you are in itself one of the many representations of beauty that live in the world today.
You will be able to show that style you've been too nervous to explore.
You'll be able to wear those shorts you've been avoiding for so long. You'll be able to feel confident in your own skin. You will have no limitations.
Both beauty and perfection are just simple concepts created a long time ago. It is okay to challenge them, and it is okay to break them. It is hard, to not care what the world thinks about you but the moment you embrace who you are, and how you are made, with open arms is the moment that you create a much-needed change in a progressing world. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
You are beautiful.
