We are told to love who we are, because each one of us is unique and special. However, society today is a bit hypocritical. Woman are constantly being told what the perfect body looks like, but the same image we are seeing has been modified to look more appealing. We fight to be perfect, yet perfection is an impossible dream. The media is slowly ruining everything we love about ourselves. As soon as you turn on your television, you see size two models with perfect hair, make up, and style. This is the image little girls grow up wanting to look like, and they slowly loose parts of who they are as they try to achieve it. 4% of women develop Bulimia at some point in their life, and of that 4%, 3.9% of woman diagnosed with bulimia die from it every year. Eating disorders are becoming more common and the statistics I shared with you are only the cases that have been diagnosed. There are hundreds of cases that go undetected every year. Not only are eating disorders effecting woman in the United States,1 million men will also struggle daily. What's even worse is that its not only the media that is destroying our self confidence, but the medical field as well.
Let's say there are two woman at the doctors office; both woman are 5' tall. The first is measured and weighed on the scale, and told that for her weight of 140lbs, she is perfectly healthy. Now the second woman is measured and weighed, but at her weight of 155lbs, she is obese and needs to begin a strict diet immediately. 15lbs is all it takes to go from healthy to obese. The major flaw in the system is that there is no way to measure the amount of muscle on a person's body. For all we know, the second woman could workout 3 times a week and that extra 15lbs is really just muscle weight. In that sense, she is perfectly healthy, but the charts still tell her shes not good enough. She goes home, begins her diet, and simultaneously starts to see flaws that existed in her mind before the doctors visit. Eating disorders are diagnosed as mental disorders because the mind has warped to societies opinion of beauty and suddenly the image in the mirror is not good enough.
To everyone who is struggling with body image insecurities, know that you are not alone. You are beautiful no matter what the number on the scale reads. Those digits do not define you. Stop living in the jail cell of your insecurities and show the world what beauty truly looks like. Its time we all started to see that we are anything we want to be and no one can tell us any different.
I am strong, I am loved, I am beautiful.
Who will you be?
