When I had more body hair than self confidence

body image

i’d say the meaning of this term is

fairly self-explanatory

body image is how we perceive our bodies

whether

it’s positive or negative varies from

person to person

one of the things that might negatively

impact body image is social media

yes seeing flawless influences is bound

to create self-taught especially since

we find ourselves comparing our bodies

to there so often

for me it almost makes me feel inferior

and like i’m not pretty enough

i’m sure a lot of us feel compelled to

compare ourselves to them

to their shiny hair to their glowing

spotless skin

to their size zero figures these beauty

standards are so difficult to escape

from especially since they’re

all around us but what we don’t need to

understand

is that a lot of this is filtered and

edited to make it appear flawless and

you cannot possibly

accurately compare your bodies to theirs

it wouldn’t be fair to your body

unfortunately a lot of these beauty

standards have been around even before

social media was as widespread

let’s go back a few years it was the

sixth grade and i like this boy

the first boy that i ever liked sounds

pretty exciting no

it wasn’t it was an absolute disaster

the boy did not fancy me and he wasn’t

afraid to show it

this didn’t bother me but he

was rude his friends and him would go

out of their way to mock me

and one of their focuses was my body

hair

which was not a problem for me until

that point in time

very soon a lot of my classmates picked

up on this joke

and well you can guess how seventh grade

went for me

i didn’t think too much of it and went

back to being my cheerful bubbly self

twelve-year-old me was a happy child she

did what she wanted she wore what she

wanted she did what made her happy

little did she know things were about to

change

to this day i cannot leave the house

if my arms aren’t covered if they aren’t

hairless

even if it’s 40 degrees outside and i

cannot help

but blame this major insecurity that has

weighed me down for so long

on a group of sixth graders that thought

it would be funny to mock my body

this brought a lot of insecurity for me

i think 10 times before leaving the

house because i think i don’t look good

enough

a boy once told me that he liked me and

i asked him why it brought so much

self-doubt and so much anxiety for me

but for a lot of other people it does

not stop there for a lot of people it

leads to

eating disorders for a lot of people it

leads to depression for a lot of people

it leads to so many unpleasant things

that i would not wish on my worst enemy

look at society as a whole dark skinned

people are shamed for the color of their

skin whereas people with lighter skin

aren’t who comes up with these

who said that having lighter skin is

better or more attractive

everyone is beautiful regardless of

their skin color their race

their gender and the list goes on

unfortunately our culture has these

beauty salons that families subject

their children to

which is why children think it’s okay to

go to schools and mock

their friends and classmates for their

body

sometimes families even use nicknames

that

highlight their kids insecurities

and these insecurities aren’t just

restricted to the person with the

insecurity they affect the people

with the insecurity the people who they

care about the people that care about

them

these insecurities don’t just vanish

with time they stick with you

and you’re bound to pass it on to people

around you

and they word to people around them it’s

an endless cycle

the thing with body images you think you

could control it but you can’t

well not entirely anyway

the body your body image is determined

by the people that surround you a study

done by the university of waterloo

suggests

that the way you perceive your body is

majorly influenced by the people that

you have daily interactions with

let’s say that you start spending time

with people who aren’t like quick to

point out your flaws

because let’s be honest all of us have

flaws nobody is perfect

but what we can do is learn to accept

them accept our own flaws

and accept others laws and i know this

is easy for me to say but

when we start accepting others flaws

this would be reciprocated and they

would accept

ours and these insecurities don’t come

into picture until someone points them

out

for example i didn’t care for my body

hair until someone decided to make fun

of it

only then did i get insecure about it

and only then did it start bothering me

so if we don’t point out other people’s

flaws and insecurities

they would not affect them

body image person’s body image becomes

negative when someone points

your insecurities out because until they

do

you don’t really think about it so when

they do your insecurities will worsen

so just be nice to each other just be

supportive and nice to each other that’s

all it takes

but when we when you are being nice to

others you need to learn how to be nice

to yourself

my therapist told me to look in the

mirror and tell myself

you are important and this felt really

weird and narcissistic at first

but as i started doing it it almost got

validating

and then i realized that i don’t need

the validation of others

the only person that i need the

validation of is myself

because it’s my body i need to take care

of it i need to live with it it’s mine

for the rest of my life so why not take

care of it and love it

instead of loading it

my therapist also asked me to keep an

appreciation journal to write down

things that i

appreciated about myself this also felt

really weird and narcissistic at first

but then as i got used to it and started

writing things that i loved and

appreciated about myself

it helped me like myself better

and this is something that we need to

learn we need to learn how to love and

appreciate ourselves

because each one of you is so beautiful

and you deserve the world

and you need to tell yourself this

i am beautiful you are beautiful

you deserve the world you are more than

you let yourself think that you

are thank you