Today we are surrounded by social media of all forms, everywhere we go. You have TVs, phones, magazines, laptops and tablets — all of which you can use to easily access news forums, blogs and various social media sites that show images of women portrayed in ways that can set unrealistic body image standards for young women all across the world. They show women that to feel confident and beautiful, they should look a certain way depending on the most recent trend.

I’m here to tell everyone that they don’t need to conform to what society says is beautiful. You don’t need to waist train for seven hours a day, or get your eyebrows tinted. Hell, if that’s what you want to do, and it will make you feel like the most powerful women you can be, go for it. At the end of the day, you should be doing whatever makes you happy with yourself.

Today, especially for young women, they see all the magazines with Photoshopped models that are perfect and truly believe that those women are real, that they should look like them. No one needs to conform themselves to match what the media puts out into the world, a lot of young women in today’s society feel like they have to be a certain way.

One thing that is prominent all over on social media are fitness models and make-up gurus who promote all sorts of products on Instagram (which don’t get me wrong, some of which I even like). Most of the time, these ads are scams or products for companies that they're being paid to promote. Then, young women see this, and go to buy it, hoping they can be like the girl in the picture who’s using editing, lights or has worked for their body in a gym, not by taking vitamins or drinking teas. Young people tend to forget that these women in the media are meant to sell products and promote brands.

Whoever you may be, don’t ever say that you wished you looked like that girl on Instagram or the girl in the magazine, stay true to yourself, and don’t believe that you have to conform to fit society’s image of what you should look like. Create your own standard of beauty by being the best and truest form of yourself, then you’ll truly be unstoppable. Once you are comfortable in your own skin, watch how easily everything else will fall into place. That starts in not comparing yourself to what the media shows us everywhere we turn our heads to an electronic screen, you don’t need to be that person, you can be you.

Women all around the world are known for their strength emotionally and physically (cough, childbirth, among many other things such as weight training). And no strong women in the 21st century should feel pressured to change themselves because of the media in today's society.