Social media taught me that being beautiful meant; straight, white teath, clear glowing complexion, long silky hair, big boobs, a big bum, but a small waist, slim legs and a flat stomach. And yet this image is unachievable for 95% of female genetics.
The photoshopped, airbrushed pictures you see on Instagram and magazines on models are ‘beautiful’ yet that’s far from what they truly look like. But if we are being taught that’s what we should look like, what are we meant to do? We can’t walk around with computerised bodies and faces?
The truth is, for the person to change in order to fit media’s beauty standards, would then be shamed for something else like plastic surgery or Botox. There is no way out.
I can’t believe 96% of girls are unhappy with themselves. The more pictures, products media feeds us makes us perceive what beautiful is. What I mean by this is, take brandy Melville for example, an American shop also based in London who only do one size fits all. It’s disgusting how they pick weither you work there. They first take a picture of you’re body, they then check you’re Instagram and check how many followers you have. Rather than seeing you as a person, they see you as a body. They see Followers being more important that the personality of the person. There trendy clothes makes girls think they need to be skinny, with thigh gaps and small waists to fit into there clothes. I know when I didn’t fit into there jeans and skirts that I cried thinking I was fat and ugly. This is one way products, clothing shop in this case, has taught us beautiful is ‘this way’. Making it ‘one size’, making it seem like everyone should be that size.
Many people, something I am guilty of, try to change themselves to fit into medias beauty standards. But I only realised that these beauty standards were impossible to reach after starving myself for a year, changing the way I spoke and the way I acted. I’d lost a lot of weight yet I still cried in changing rooms and still didn’t meet the media’s beauty standards.
Look beyond you’re body, there’s a beautiful, glowing personality. Everyone’s is different, and that’s what makes yours so unique and the reality is, if we all looked the same, we’d be taught to look different. If we were all skinny, we’d be taught to look bigger.
Don’t let media twist you’re perception of beautiful, don’t let it bring you down, don’t let it steal you’re confidence, because at the end of the day, it’s false. Don’t fall into its trap. You’re more than a body, you are a person.
@blossomingella on instagram