When you were little, whenever I took you grocery shopping with me, I would show you the magazines on display, and I would say “Look at the pictures of these women. These are all fake.” I started telling you this when you were far too young to have any idea what I was talking about, but it still seemed important enough to me to start telling you as soon as I could.
Women are taught to hate their bodies. Too fat, too pale, hair too straight, hair too curly. Why are all the women on the magazine covers airbrushed? It doesn’t matter what her body really looks like, they won’t show it to us in its real form.
What message is this sending? That no woman’s body is good enough. That even the supermodels have flaws that should be changed; that should be hidden from us. So if the supermodel isn’t good enough, how are you supposed to feel good about your own body? How are you supposed to look in the mirror, and see your flaws, and still know that you look good?
The next time you’re at school, or in any other public place, look around at the girls there. Really look at what they look like. Notice their flaws, but also what looks good about them. This is what real people look like. Real people don’t look like the people on tv, and they certainly don’t look like the people on the magazine covers. They don’t look like the Hollywood actresses with their eating disorders. They look like the people you see every day.
Can you see how we’re being manipulated? Can you see how they get us to buy what they’re selling? As long as we feel bad about ourselves, we will buy whatever they’re trying to sell us, whether it’s beauty products or TV shows. We’ll spend our money to try to look like the people they show us, and we’ll never accomplish that, because what they’re showing us is fake.
I know it’s hard when we’re constantly bombarded by these fake images. And it makes it even harder that most of the people around us have all been duped by them. Just try to take a step back from what you’re being told and what you’re being shown, and really look at yourself. You don’t look perfect. No one does. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful in your own, flawed, imperfect, real way. Learn to see your beauty, even with your flaws.