Growing up, there were very few times when I thought of myself as beautiful, healthy, smart or even talented. I always thought in order to be beautiful and accepted, I had to act like the girls in movies and look like the girls in magazines. This mindset was wrong and almost impossible to achieve.

“I'm in the world to change the world” was the title of my women’s studies activism project. For this project, a few girls and I decided to make an awareness towards promoting better body image. Our mission is to promote positive body image among females in a society of body shaming. We want to show women that it is important to love your body and respect it just the way it is, and that all body types are beautiful.

So, what is considered a positive body image? I read what National Eating Disorders had to say about body image and, using my own words, I translated what I think should consist in the mindset of a person who wants to have better perception of a positive body image:

• Loving the true perception of your body shape, seeing what your body is for what it really is.

• The ability to appreciate your natural body, understanding a person’s physical appearance is not always tied to their personality and value as a person.

• Feeling proud and accepting how unique you are, not wasting precious time constantly worrying about your weight and calorie intake.

• The ability to feel comfortable and confident in your own skin.

Have you seen this photo? Recently Victoria’s Secret and Dove went against each other in an ad for “The Perfect Body.”

For our project we decided to reenact the idea. Here are some of the reactions from young women from St. Cloud State University when instructed to pose a certain way:

1. Pose like a model.

2. Pose how a strong woman would.

3. Pose creatively/confidently/comfortably with your friends.

4. Show how strong and capable you are.

For the next photos, I really wanted to show the comparison between what real, healthy, comfortable models look like, compared to the models who are posed unnatural and in an objectifying way:

As you can see in all the photos above, there are distinct differences between the models. In one group, they are having fun, smiling and posing how they feel comfortable; it looks like something you would naturally see happening in everyday life. Now compared to the other group, where they are serious, sensual and posed in unnatural, objectifying ways … I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen anybody pose like how the professional models do, on purpose.

Sure, you can be confident, pose how you want, be artistic and sure, there are people out there in the world who naturally look like the professional models in the magazine. So where’s the problem? The problem is that the media and other sources are only allowing one category of beauty for women: tall, skinny, white, luscious hair, young, big bright eyes, perfectly hairless, smooth skin, etc. Women are a vast species, and we need to understand that not all women can be categorized to fit one form of beauty.

When we see professional models in pictures, we often see models who are posed where they look like they could fall over if the tiniest whisper of wind came by. We see some who look like they are out to party and drugged up, acting childish and wearing little girls dresses posed innocently, being objectified by becoming a bottle of beer or posing half naked on a car. My rant about how models are oversexualized could go on forever, but I'm pretty sure you get the point.

Why is this considered the normal beauty standard? Why should little girls grow up thinking that they need be as tiny as a piece of paper, participating in crazy social media tends, always needing to party, dressing and looking every so promiscuously and innocent but yet having to be the “bad girl” for only one man. We girls grow up so confused. It is so incredibly ironic that we must not be sexually confident, but yet everything is so sexualized.

Ladies, we need to take a stand and make a change! Because we are all beautiful. In my opinion, the only way you should be accepted as being beautiful is simply being you ... I mean, it is in the word for crying out loud! #BEaUtiful. Wake up every morning knowing that today is a new start, smile at yourself in the mirror, eat when you are hungry, rest when you are tired, simply listen and respect your body. It’s the only one you’ve got; take good care of it.

Wise words from my 73 year old grandma “Have a good appetite, eat hardy. If you get fat, buy bigger clothes. Get a good night's sleep, take a nap every day, walk five miles every day, thank god for the mental ability to do everything. Oh, and last but not least, life begins when you realize how quickly it can end. And praise god for a good appetite because a well fed person is a rich one!”

Also, go check out Calley's story. Making a Tumblr account was another big part of our project and it would be wonderful if you would support us with a follow, like or share! We want to get the word out there about positive body image. Let’s show the world what real girls look like. Feel free to make a post and tag us in it. #wsSocialChange #BEaUtiful