I’ve never really been a “skinny” girl. Throughout my whole life I have had a problem with my weight and because of this I have grown up to be very insecure about how I look. Now, I will be the first to admit that my diet and exercise does play a role, but even so I should be able to feel confident and love myself. I always worried about what other people thought of how I looked when instead I should have been worrying about how I felt.

Body positivity isn’t easy and everyone comes in various shapes and sizes. The first step to loving your body is to realize this and accept it. Most of my own, and other peoples, insecurities come from the media and from a very young age we are taught that you have to look a certain way; you have to look skinny. But once you realize that everyone’s body is made different, you realize that the “skinny” body that is portrayed as perfect in the media isn’t attainable for everyone.

The second step to loving your body is making a change. You can change your diet, your exercise habits, but most importantly you can change the way you think. In my body positivity journey I am trying to not only eat better, but exercise more as well. As a college student this can be very challenging but when I put the effort in I immediately feel a difference. I have also changed the way I think about my body. Instead of hating what I see I embrace it. By dressing in various styles or experimenting with makeup I can turn the parts of me that I hate into something I love. Nothing really changes the way I look, but it makes me feel more confident and the confidence is what matters.

Throughout my journey of learning to love my body I have also discovered something very important – “skinny” isn’t beautiful, confidence is. The truth is, nobody but yourself cares what shape or size you are, and true beauty lies in how you think of yourself. I have gained so much more confidence in this past year that I feel more beautiful than ever before. Sure I haven’t lost the weight that I want to lose and sure I don’t look like the models in all the magazines (and trust me I don’t want to look like them), but in the meantime I am no longer ashamed of how I look and don’t care about what other people think of me.

My journey is far from over, but reflecting back on how far I have already come makes me feel so proud. Many girls my age hate parts or all of their body, but I am writing this to tell them that they don’t have to. Body positivity isn’t based on the number on a scale, but based on how you feel in your own body. Just like people have different hair and eye colors, everyone has different bodies. We need to learn to embrace that rather than suppress it by trying to look like someone you aren’t. You are beautiful. We are all beautiful.