Why is self-love so hard to come by?

I will NEVER be a size 2 and I am okay with that.

I’m going to be honest it took me a very long time for me to understand that. For as long as I can remember I have always had self-image issues. I would try all these things to try to look like those Victoria secret models on TV, but unfortunately my parents blessed me with the “short and thick” genes. As time went on of course I got picked on by kids in my class, no I wasn’t the prettiest or the skinniest but being reminded of that every day by your class mates was horrifying.

Eventually in high school the kids started to grow out of their immature name calling games but their words have stuck with me. The worst part is that it wasn’t just the kids at school it even followed me back to my family. Don’t get me wrong I have to best family in the world but the “You don’t need another plate of food” or “That’s all going to your butt” jokes, they get old. yes, I get you might be joking and yes, I might laugh it off. But inside it hurts because it adds on to the self-image problems I already have.

I finally realized that me hating how I looked was tearing me apart and making me a miserable person. I finally changed my mind set and turned towards God. I give so much love out to so many people but it’s funny because I didn’t even love myself? It sounds so crazy, but once I started to love my self and treated myself with respect I started to love everyone in such a pure way, even the ones who shamed my body and I have never been as happy as I am at this very moment. Do I have a perfect body? No, not even close. But over the years I have learned to love and embrace my curves and all my stretch marks. But the cruel words of my peers and some family members have stayed with me. I’m not telling you guys this for sympathy but simply to remind everyone that NO ONE IS PERFECT and trying to alter yourself because “society” thinks you should look and feel a certain way is completely wrong. God has made each one of us different. We are wonderfully made. It has taken me years and years to understand this and I still struggle everyday with how society views me, but I am also learning every day that self-love is so important for your mind and your soul.

So many young girls are trying to alter themselves because society says they have to look a certain way to have friends or for boys to like them and all the social media just makes the self-hate so much stronger for these young girls, because they are trying to be just like all the social media models they see. Instead of telling girls how they should look, how about we tell them how beautiful they already are, how about we encourage them to be different from everyone else, how about we love everyone unconditionally. Because I know if I would have had those three things I wouldn’t have been worried about how my body was viewed by society. Everyone is so beautifully made and so beautifully different. Let’s embrace those characteristics because I guarantee it will get you a lot farther in life.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. You are worth so much more than what size pants you wear and I pray that our society will one day understand that.