"I want to lose weight, get a nose job, dye my hair blonde."
"Straighter teeth."
"Perfect boobs."
"I would like myself more if everything was more toned and flat."
"My hands are too big, I feel self conscious when I hold a guy's hand."
"My shoulders and hips are too wide for my tiny stature."
"Basically everything."
I asked 30 women aged 5-35 what they would change about their body if they were given a magic wand. The overflow of responses spoke about anything from their nose being too pointed to their feet being too long. That last quote came from a 15 year old girl who gets picked on at school because of the way she looks.
The more women I spoke with, the more I realized that body issues are a universal thing that girls go through. We might not all have the same things we want to change about ourselves, but the idea is parallel. Women feel like they need to change something about themselves because of comparison and societal pressures.
With social media being such a huge part of our lives now, we can instantaneously see an overload of images of so called "Instagram Models."
This leads to girls young and old to compare their bodies to other people. The thing is though, every body is different. We are all made a little different, a little unique to everyone else and guess what? That is OKAY. We are all supposed to look different. Can you image what the world would look like if we all looked the same? It would look like an episode from Black Mirror.
Then come in the societal pressures that we are put under at. We are constantly trying to look good for a lover, but why can't we just look good for ourselves? I don't think there is anything wrong with working out and living a healthy lifestyle, but do it for YOURSELF. Don't do it for the wrong reasons.
I will be the first one to admit that self love is an never ending journey that we are all on. Sometimes it's hard to find things that I like about my body, but I have a trick to positive self talk. Stand in front of the mirror and say 5 things you like about yourself that day. It could be something as small as how your hair looks or as big as "Man I have a nice butt!"
Love yourself, love your flaws and weakness, and love your body. You are perfect the way you are.
I LOVE your piece on body Image !! It is extremely sad that as girls we put ourselves threw sooo much torture !! I don't think we will ever be happy with our bodies. We can do things like exercise, watch what we eat ,go to bed early , watch our alcohol consumption and plenty of self helping affirmations !!!!! We need to re-train our brains for 21 days to instill SELF LOVE : MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT !!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your words!
Delete