In today's society one of the biggest competitions between one another is body image. We as millennials compare our looks and bodies to one another. It seems like only a select few are actually happy with their bodies. We are always thinking about ways we can make us look better or in our heads "hotter." We have become obsessed with dieting, starving ourselves, working ourselves too hard, cutting necessary nutrients out of our diets, and going to the gym. For what? To have this perfect body, that everyone will love. Every guy or girl will want to be with you or be you? Sometimes we let this "perfect body" take over our lives. Is there some kind of standard for bodies? Does everyone have to look a certain way to be concidered a human? NO!

Get it out of your head that you have to look a certain way for everyone to like you. Be happy in the skin you are in. You get one body, don't mess it up. I am not saying don't try to look the way you want to look. I am saying love the skin your in along the way.

Now I am going to sound like a hypocrite. I hate the body I am in. I wish I had a flat stomach or a perfect hour-glass figure. Why? Because to me that is what everyone around me has. I see everyone as these models. There was a point where I was happy with my body. I almost had that flat stomach I wanted with defined curves in my body. What happened? The freshman 15. Yes I will admit I was a culprit of the freshman 15. But I am not going to put that blame on anyone but myself. I stopped being active and I enjoyed all the goodies college has to offer-- easy mac, ramen, greasy food from the cafeteria. I stopped eating healthy, I stopped exercising. Now that I realized what I have done to myself, I want to get back to eating healthy and exercising.

In efforts to lose weight, on my 20th birthday I decided to start eating healthy again and going to the gym 3 times a week. Why am I giving in to this obsessive body competition? Not because I want to compare myself to anyone, but because I want to be happy in my own skin. I have decided to stop comparing my body to everyone else and image myself the way I want to. I am not doing this for anyone but myself.

This is my choice because I want to be happy with my own body, you can tell me I am being a hypocrite but that's okay. But if you're someone else who isn't happy with their skin, then become happy with your skin. Don't try to do anything harsh to be "happy" with your skin. Sometimes it is minor things you can do to be happy. For me, it is loosing the 15 pounds I gained last year. Honestly, it is just going back to how I ate before college. Does that mean I am going to stop eating Teddy Grams and icing? No, just cut back on it.

Don't think everyone else is perfect. One of the biggest sex symbols in history didn't have a "perfect body." Marilyn Monroe even had some tummy rolls and cellulite on her thighs. And guess what, pictures in magazines are photoshopped. No one has a perfect body, everyone has imperfections.

Do not let anyone around you effect what you think you have to look like. If you think you have to be a size 0 to wear a bikini, that's wrong. You can wear a bikini no matter what size you are. Why would they make other sizes if they weren't meant to be wore. So break that stereotype, wear what you want.

No one is perfect, there is not a definition of a perfect body. Everyone has imperfections, embrace them. Embrace your body, love your body. If you aren't happy with your body change it. You have the power to do so. But do not change your body because someone else told you to. Do it because you want to, because you want to love your body. You only get one body, so make it worth your while. Don't change your self because you want to look like everyone else. It is good to be different, different is beautiful. Every body type is beautfiful.

“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”
― Amy Bloom