There is nothing that bugs me more than listening to one human criticize the appearance of another human or even worse criticizing their own self. Especially when it comes to females. Until you have been on that horrible side of being called ugly, fat or worthless you probably can't begin to know how deeply those words can hurt someone or how badly you can hurt yourself. But yet it's done all day, every day and it's killing our young girls self-confidence.
What triggered my thinking with this blog post is listening to a group of young girls putting themselves down. Talking about how they are too fat, too thin, hating their faces due to acne and so on. Young teenage girls putting themselves down way before life is supposed to be hard, but why? I get the teenage years are hard and all of this is pretty normal except that I looked at all of their beautiful faces and none of them have an ounce of fat on them, they are thin because they are active and to top it off they are all gorgeous with killer style. Are you too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, boobs too small or too big (I don't suffer from that), are you supposed to be blond, brunette, is your butt perfectly shaped? Ugh...the list goes on and on. It's sad that our society is so superficial and paints the picture of what beautiful is supposed to look like. Where a female's appearance is everything and when in public you are under public scrutiny even as a teenager. I am sure these issues are discussed in school during health classes but let's be honest that is awkward and I highly doubt any of the girls are brave to speak up about what they are feeling. I wonder if there is any movement out there where an average women walks into a school and speaks to a group of girls about what it's like to be average? I feel like this needs to be the next thing I look into and ask about.
Perhaps this isn't settling with me because this way of thinking used to be me. The picture above is my legs from our recent summer vacation in July. For years I was told my legs are fat and I was convinced they totally were. I always wanted to wear longer skirts and forget wearing shorts. This one person had me convinced of something that wasn't even true and the real question is why did I allow him to do that? I know now that my legs might not be as fit as the next person but I run enough miles to not have fat legs. When I was growing up I certainly had some bulk to me. I had several girl cousins who were much thinner and my Grandfather labeled me as the chunky one. That really stuck with me even through adulthood. I wish he was around today though because I am far from the chunky one now.
I guess the moral of these stories is this kinda thing happens to many women, even the strong one's. So if we allow this as women I can't even imagine what young girls are allowing. Our generation needs to set the example and stop putting ourselves down in front of the generations below us. It will remind me the next time I am jumping around trying to fit into my skinny jeans to not put myself down for gaining a few pounds but instead embrace the next size up. Maybe I go for the handful of carrots for a snack verse a handful of chips. Be a healthy role model verse accepting what I don't like about myself and making a change.
Next time we have something negative to say about a female's appearance I challenge us to find the good quality she has and let that be said instead. Most importantly we need to tell the young girls in our lives they are beautiful just the way they are. Average is beautiful too!
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