To start off, let me explain how I feel about the media in the most serious way possible:

Nowadays, there’s a social media for just about everything. You love to eat Greek food and you want to find other people who won’t judge you for chowing down on 30 spanakopita in one sitting? You want to be able to watch people exercise while you are comfortably horizontal? Your dog is lonely and is ready for his fur-ever soul mate? You got it. No problem. There’s an app for that. And while reading what was once a tree is quickly becoming old news (pun intended), magazines still litter the shelves of every supermarket and drugstore. The covers of those fine pieces of literary genius are nothing short of mind-boggling. I’m always glad to know who’s committing adultery with who and who spent 100 trillion dollars on what car. Because it’s that stuff that really matters.

Since the media is pretty much only escapable if you are a mole person (shout out to Kimmy Schmidt), you’re guaranteed to come into contact with it multiple times a day. And with the media comes what I like to call the “subjects.” These men and women are so prevalent, nay, influential, that they almost seem to reach demigod status. They are the ones that the younger generation sees and strives to become. It is this fact that I have an issue with.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a second to discuss something important: the human body. Every human is designed to be unique. This means having features (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, bust, booty, tummy) that can only be combined to make a single person. Most identical twins still have a small aspect that sets them apart. This is what makes every person so special. It’s becoming exceedingly more common for young girls and boys to idolize certain people because they are famous in the eye of the media. This often means wanting to be just like them. Here’s the hard part: you can’t. It’s impossible to be someone you weren’t designed to be, and this fact can be devastating. Body dysmorphia is not something to be taken lightly. It is clearly portrayed in the media that “skinny” people are superior to their counterparts, but think about it this way. It’s all a game of "Monkey See Monkey Do." A young girl follows a female celebrity on Instagram, instantly flooded with new images of the celeb. The teen now has someone to compare herself to. This starts a [nearly always] disastrous downwards spiral.

If there is one thing I wish everyone could get in their head, it would be this: love the skin you’re in. I know, this is a hard one. It took me a long time to do it myself, but life is so effortless once you have. You care more about the little things than anyone else does. As cliche as it sounds, life is too short not to love being you. Take a step back. Look at yourself. Really look at yourself. Notice how amazing you are. Appreciate your body for letting you travel to beautiful places and pet beautiful puppies and hug beautiful friends. I want to personally thank you for being alive. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you’re uniquely you.