Beauty Standards

[Music]

candy

ice cream cake brownies and more

that is all i wanted to eat when i was

little maybe even still today

i used to correlate these foods to

deliciousness and happiness

but now all that comes to mind is just

unhealthiness or foods that will make my

stomach

extra big arms legs

mouths and feet these are all parts of

my body

when i was little i thought of them as

parts that helped me run

fast eat food and play sports but now i

seem to be able to find a flaw in each

of these parts of myself

hello my name is emily newhall and i’m

going to be speaking about american

beauty standards

how we view our bodies is constantly

changing and it’s different for every

person

i was lucky enough and quite frankly

skinny enough to not have a negative

thought about my body crossed my mind

until i got to middle school are you

anorexic

i was asked at first i was just confused

then i realized something must be wrong

with me

later it seemed like everyone wanted

what i had and now i’m told my body is

not desirable

confusing right but this is what went

through my mind due to the constant

reinforcement from other people

everyone has a perception of their own

bodies

good bad confident insecure

society is what shapes these views and

they are almost entirely perpetuated

through the media

because we are living in the age of

social media it is extremely difficult

not to fall victim to the models and

celebrities promoting a certain body

type

now young women are told to have a small

waist pretty face

and big butt but wait you have to look

natural too

who can fulfill these unattainable

standards

the images and representation that all

of us view from a very young age

begin to shape our views on what is

ideal or what we should look like

these images can and often do lead to

extremely negative effects

essentially all young people have

various insecurities about their bodies

for some it is more intense and for

others it is simply an insecurity here

or

there regardless insecurities impact us

all

they impact how we feel when we look in

the mirror when we put on our clothes

when we take pictures and simply when we

go throughout our day

they make us feel less than they make us

diet and sometimes they even make us

starve or binge

when we do not value our bodies for what

they provide us but instead what they

look like we begin to treat them poorly

i think that most people take their

bodies for granted

we will never meet the beauty standards

there will always be

something that’s wrong with us in other

people’s eyes

however we should learn to appreciate

our bodies for giving us life

and we should value our lives for having

the opportunity to make a difference

the only way to feel good about

ourselves is to learn how to love

ourselves for who we are

not just what we look like for me

i dealt with many insecurities for a

very long time but i came to the sudden

realization

that i needed to learn how to love

myself and that is exactly what i did

i thought about what my body allows me

to do every day

i thought about my character my morals

and my values

and i soon realized that there is so

much more to life than just what i look

like

while i still deal with insecurities

like everyone else

i walk out of my house every day

confident and ready to make a difference

and reach my goals

what we look like is a large part of our

identity but who we

are is so much bigger there is no one

definition of beauty

it can come from the inside or the

outside it can be big or

small but the only person who should

make that definition is you

so the next time you think about

something you don’t like about your body

ask yourself why why don’t you like it

who makes you feel like you shouldn’t

like it

beauty standards are simply a construct

enforced by society to put us down

but they have no real power if you do

not give it to them

a trait that most people want is

confidence the confidence is not just

given to you you have to go

get it and whether you do or not is

completely in your own control

we should all appreciate our bodies more

because in hindsight we are really just

organs held together by skin and what we

look like is really just science

these unattainable beauty standards

should not impact the way we feel about

ourselves or how we live our lives

so think about the underlying causes of

your insecurities and then get rid of

them

there is so much beauty in south

pasadena

and it comes in all shapes and sizes so

let us all try to see people for who

they are

not just what they look like and do the

same for ourselves as well

thank you