You are enough. Every day while I scroll through my social media accounts–whether it's Twitter, Instagram or Facebook–I am constantly seeing women who are either extremely thin or who are considered to be "thick"– which means that they have bigger breasts, bigger hips, or they have lip injections, have undergone some type of plastic surgery, have eyelash extensions, and whatever other beauty trend is currently trending within our generation. You do not need these things to be beautiful. You do not need the latest velvet skirt or the latest crop top that everyone else owns to have others see you as beautiful.
YOU NEED TO BE YOU. I know the old saying "beauty is what is on the inside" is always said to us by our parents, grandparents or whoever. We have all heard this saying at least once in our lifetime. We may think to ourselves this saying is corny and it is not what people actually think, but this old saying is very true. Even if you can't see how true it really is. Real beauty is being smart, being positive, your sense of humor, treating others with kindness and respect, your smile, your work ethic, and most importantly, being you and taking care of you.
You were born to be you and to be different, you should never change just because society says you are supposed to look this way. You aren't. If these women that we see on our social media, on our televisions or on our magazine covers were supposed to look this way, then I believe they wouldn't have to put their bodies and themselves through such stress and pay endless amounts of money to be this way.
Everyone is always trying to be someone else and is always hiding who they really are rather than being in love with who they really are and embracing that. Whether if it's wearing pounds of makeup to change your facial features, using a bunch of filters on your pictures to distort yourself, or if it is just because everyone else is doing it, or if it's having implants to look like someone famous who impacts the younger generation such as Kylie Jenner. No one is ever happy with themselves and the way they look when everyone should be embracing themselves and their individuality. Being confident and being happy with ourselves in a generation like this is not easy but it isn't impossible.
If we could just ignore what the media says then we could all accomplish not giving into what society says. How can we all be individual and rocking our own sense of style if we all look the same? We can't. It is common sense now that many women suffer from higher rates of low self-esteem due to having so many insecurities that aren't actually even there. Instead of working on these insecurities in their own way to benefit themselves and their lives more positively, they resort to receiving likes on social media. Social media has become an outlook for attention in a negative way. LADIES! You do NOT need to post half-nude to fully nude pictures on social media to prove that you are beautiful. Your body is a beautiful wonderland, as said by a famous musician John Mayer. They are not made to be put on display for anyone and everyone to look at. Women should always take pride in themselves and should always have the utmost respect for themselves, as we do a lot of amazing things in our lifetime, such as being given the opportunity to give someone else life. You are beautiful whether you are a size 32 or 00–never let anyone tell you otherwise.
Body and beauty shamming has got to stop. We do not need to live up to any standard to be happy. We learn to be happy by being comfortable within ourselves. Who the hell is anyone to tell us what is perfect and what isn't anyway? We are judged constantly for the way we look by everyone everywhere because this is what society has done to us. But at the end of the day they are not you and you are not them so they can't really be judging you anyway. Everyone has their own ideas of what beauty is to them but it is up to us to decide if we love ourselves enough. If you love yourself then all these ideas of what we are supposed to look like begin to disappear. We need to love ourselves and how we are made. Don't let society fool you.
