I was in sixth grade when I first thought of my body image in a negative way. I remember my mom and I were shopping for a dress for my school choir concert, and I remember thinking that I looked fat in every dress I tried on. Looking back, it is appalling that at the age of 12 I could possibly even be thinking of being fat when I should've been thinking about horses or whatever sixth graders like. Instead of trying to remember the song lyrics or the times I was supposed to sing I was worried that somehow my small Catholic school community was going to be looking at me thinking I was "fat" in my dress. But what can I say? I was raised in a new generation of body image. Disney channel stars and celebrities were my idols. Always perfectly done up and somehow always having the perfect body.
Getting older, it didn't get any better. The growth in social media only promoted these negative ideas of body image in my mind. Constantly being flooded with the ideal beauty image was overwhelming. Girls were told to be skinny, but not "grossly" skinny. You are told that makeup makes you look better but not to wear to much or you look "fake." The standards were almost too much to keep up with. It's no wonder that there is a rise in eating disorder and body image issues in today's youth.
Luckily, I had strong female role models around me to remind me what is really important. My mom most importantly taught me that weight is just a number, and that as long as you are healthy, you are beautiful. Sadly, this lesson was often overthrown by the pressures of body image. As if high school and your beginning teenage years aren't confusing and tough enough, the added pressure of becoming a supermodel has only added to it. While companies and programs today have tried to overthrow this unrealistic standard, it still carries a huge impact on the ways girls live their lives.
I am no expert about positive body image at all. I've had my own personal struggles with finding my own happiness about my image and confidence; it is not an easy trait to learn. But I've been blessed enough to have been surrounded with people in my life that help nurture this.
If you are struggling with body image, remember this: You are beautiful. No matter what. Even though you may not think it right now or feel like it, every person has their own unique look. That's possibly what makes you the most beautiful. No one person is alike (well, unless you're a twin -- but that's an article for another day) and that is something to take pride in. Comparing will only hurt you. As much as you think one person may be "perfect" or have it all together, they are more than likely dealing with the same insecurities you are.
Listen to your body and treat it with care. Eating disorders are serious diseases and should never be taken lightly. Harming yourself and your body to fit into a number size puts a huge amount of pressure on you. If you treat your body with care, it will only reward you back.
Clothing is truly just a number. In today's world, size is determining peoples own self-worth more than anything else. There has been a growth of fixation on a number on a small piece of fabric rather than defining your self-worth by how you treat the people around you. Everyone is striving to be a size zero when in reality that is impossible. For some reason everyone desires to be literally nothing. Zero is a number but somehow this number has overtaken girls' confidence and leads to these disorders. It doesn't matter if you are a zero or a six, clothing should make you feel good about yourself because of how you feel in it, not because of what the tag says.
And most importantly, no body is the perfect body. Despite what Instagram or Twitter or whatever other social media platform might tell you, there is no such thing as a perfect body. Because to be a perfect body it means that everybody must be able to look and become the same. And if you think that's possible, well, you have a few things to learn.
Every body, and everybody, is perfect in their individual own way.
