Since I was a little girl, I was always taught to be modest and conservative. I was embarrassed to wear skirts and spaghetti straps in public because of the way I was noticed, and even now I have trouble leaving the house without a sweater. I'm not a particularly shy person, but I simply don't like when people look at me the way they do when I'm not just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. With the way media shapes the minds of people today, it has become difficult to feel comfortable wearing anything above my knees without hesitation.

Walking through the checkout line at the grocery store, magazines overwhelm me, articles entitled, "Best Summer Bodies" with half-naked Hollywood stars plastered on the covers. It's hard not to look at the female body as an object when the media makes it out as such.

Growing up in the 21st century, there's no such thing as “censorship.” Objectification, a word I’ve always heard, but never truly understood, is something that I’m now experiencing and is beginning to affect me. I’ve begun to grasp what it really means and apply it to my own life, finding it too difficult to ignore.

Changing the way we are “supposed” to view the female body is paramount, but it may never happen, in fact, it may only get worse. We are not objects, and should not be seen as such.

Today, I refuse to give into the pressures to be "magazine beautiful." I love myself, and sure, there are days when I look in the mirror and don't like what I see, but I should never feel that way, and neither should you. It's time to look in the mirror and love what we see, to dress however we'd like without feeling the need to hide in the shadows or under a sweater, to take charge and be the intelligent, empowered woman we were always meant to be.