Dear Society,
I am not defined by my weight.
This statement opposes everything you have taught me: throughout years of media, sports, hobbies, and peers that created the unrealistic expectation of what my body was supposed to be. This is a statement that I am still struggling to believe everyday, because of the pressures you placed on me. You have led young women to believe that skinnier is better, that our looks, our health, and our happiness are all dependent on our size. None of this is true.
I lived most of my life as a teenager believing the lies you told me about my body. I hated myself when I looked in the mirror, because my body didn’t look like the perfect bodies you constantly showed me. I cried when my jeans didn’t fit, when the scale said I had gained a pound, and whenever my body changed. I starved myself on and off for the better part of my high school years, never reaching the perfect body I was promised, never losing the weight I hated, only losing my friends, my energy, and my happiness along the way.
Only recently have I begun to understand that the things you say about our bodies are not true. I have learned to love my own body, and accept the things about it that I can not change. My body will do things that you have told me are not beautiful. And I will feel beautiful anyways. My tummy will roll when I sit down, because it is filled with yummy food. And I have come to learn that the dinner I ate with my friends, filled with laughter and memories, is worth more than a flat stomach. My thighs will jiggle when I run, because my body allows me to move. And I have come to learn that being able to run, surrounded by nature and breathing fresh air, is much more important than not having any fat on my thighs. My body will have cellulite, stretch marks, and scars along it, because it has grown with me. And I have come to learn that these reminders of who I have become are more beautiful than perfectly smooth skin.
My body is my body. I am now thankful for my body, for all that it provides me, for all that it allows me to do. I know now that my body is beautiful. No number inside my jeans, weight on my scale, or judgement from society can change this anymore.
Every young girl deserves this freedom. To love her body for what it is, not what it isn’t. To grow up in a society that teaches her to nourish herself, not to starve herself. To live in a world where her body is good enough, no matter its shape or size, because it is hers. So society, be this change. Celebrate every body, every size, every curve, stretch mark, and so-called imperfection. Create a better world for the young women of tomorrow, so that they can grow up loving their bodies because of what society tells them about it, not despite it.
-Anonymous
Comments