Imagine this scene...
You are sitting with your best girlfriends clicking through Snapchat, scrolling through Instagram and laughing at pictures on Twitter when your friend sighs, loudly exclaiming that she wishes that she were "normal-sized." Your other friend starts talking about how there are no "normal-sized" models in ads and magazines. In your heart, you know both of your friends are beautiful and it hurts you that they do not see themselves in this light as well. And, at times, you wish for the same things to be true.
How do you help?
Wishing to be normal is a thought that passes through most women's, and even men's heads quite frequently. It is hard to change someone's opinion of themselves, especially with the millions of advertisements that are shoved down your throat every day that makes you wish you hadn't eaten that cupcake yesterday. So now people are left with self-hate, body image issues, and wishes to be normal. But to make matters worse, there is no perfect definition of what it means to be "normal."
Again, how do you help?
I think the way we start to help -- the way we start to change how people view themselves -- is to stop using the word "normal" altogether. Normal does not have a definition because there is no definition. When a person looks at someone in an advertisement whom they find appealing, they think in their head, that is what "normal" looks like. From then on, that person will strive to become like that person. THAT IS CRAZY! But most people do it without even realizing it.
Judging ourselves on a frequent basis has become second nature to most of us. And yes, models in magazines and ads are real people, but they have been so airbrushed and touched up that the images we are given are not even close to representing those real peoples' bodies. So, then, how can we base "normal" off of something that is not even "normal" to the person whose body we are admiring!
The answer is that we can't, we shouldn't, and we need to stop. It is unhealthy and a habit that we need to kick. I know I am guilty of wishing I looked "normal," just as anyone who is reading this article probably is, but we need to move forward. We need to stop using the word "normal" to describe people. We need to stop wishing for normalcy when there is no such thing.
The truth is, everyone on this planet has a different body type that God lovingly made just for them. There is no way a "normal" body image can be placed on anybody if everyone is different. One person weighing 140 pounds, 5 ft 3in, and is all muscle will look completely different from someone who weighs 140 pounds, is 6ft and is leaner. They are the same weight, but just like their names, personalities, interests and lives, their bodies are different.
They are not normal in the best way possible. They are their own type of variety; a type of variety only they can decide based on their lifestyle preferences.
So instead of wishing that advertisements and magazines would use "normal-sized" models, insist that they have more variety in the models they use. Use your voice to speak out against "normal." YOU define what your variety is.
