Beautiful You

Body Shaming

Teens these days scroll through hundreds of posts on social media that showcases perfect body figures which creates an illusion in them that they need to be a certain size to be noticed. Then they look themselves in the mirrors and become their worst critic. More often than not, they starve themselves the next day and the day after and the day after till they stress out so much that they binge eat the day after, because apparently beauty comes with a high degree of pain. Its a vicious cycle and one that is so so hard to break. 

I have seen so many kids starting from the age of 8 or 9 use so many cosmetic products, posing in front of cameras in ways that could make them feel validated, and it is saddening to see such young minds be deluded to think that they are somehow not good enough.

Society calls us out by our physical traits such as the fat one or the skinny one or the dark skinned one or the one with lots of acne as if they define us, and we mistakenly abide by those names and forget who we truly are. 

We live in a world where a person's character is judged by the size of his or her clothes.

People, especially teens are made to believe that a certain body size is a requirement to have someone take an interest in them.

And if someone already has the required body type, he or she believes that someone takes only their body seriously, not the mind. 

Statistics shows that about 94 percent of teenage girls and about 65 percent of teenage boys have gone through body shaming.

If you are going through something like this, I want you to know that whatever shape, size, colour you are in, you are worth loving someone and being loved back just equally, if not more. And more importantly, you are worth being taken seriously.

If you feel as if the social media is taking a toll on your mental health and self image, take a step back. There's nothing wrong in taking time out and prioritising yourself. 

If you are a parent, I want you to remind your kids that they are beautiful and loved no matter what. Encourage healthy lifestyle but dont focus on something as temporary as outer beauty.

If you have a peer who's having body image issues, I want you to just listen to them and be as supportive as you can. Encourage them to seek help, be empathetic.

Because overweight or not, eating disorders are real, body shaming is real, depression and anxiety is real and we need to be courageous enough to openly talk about them. And not just talk about them, but also reinforce new habits to stop body shaming and spread positivity in our lives and the lives around us.

Smile. Be kind. Fall in love with yourself.

xoxo
Ava.