body image

i was on youtube, watching random videos & ended up clicking on this one:

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"i don't have a thigh gap... that makes me not normal, that makes me not beautiful"

"i just wanna kinda fit in"

"i would literally slouch so i was shorter"

"people that don't look good in bikinis shouldn't go out in public in bikinis"

"i dressed as madonna & the kid in my grade... goes 'isn't madonna supposed to be skinny?'"

"i didn't necessarily struggle w an eating disorder but i definitely like went through periods of time where i would be like fasting"

"a term nowadays is slim thick, so even if some parts of you are slim, other parts of you have to be full"

"honestly i don't feel comfortable in my own skin sometimes"

"i just don't look in the mirror often & call it a day"

these girls are 6-18 years old; they're all younger than me but i can still remember feeling like this about my body during those ages & still feeling that way even now. we always hear about how girls feel like they have to "change to conform to society's beauty standards" but why does SOCIETY still not change THEIR beauty standards to conform to US? these crazy & outrageous standards are detrimental to girls' self-esteems/self-image but here we are, continuing to perpetuate it

why should we be self-conscious about our height, our weight, our facial structures- things that we can't control/were born w? why should we hate ourselves when we were created this way? if we were born to look a certain way, we should be able to love ourselves that way

sure, we have a bit more representation now than before- we have some models that are black, white, hispanic, plus sized, gay, etc. but it's not enough. we need MORE. MORE representation, more diversity, more NORMAL body sizes, MORE variety, MORE ways to show our beautiful girls that they are all normal, they are all beautiful, they are all valid

"find something you love on your body"

learn to love everything about your body