As I scrolled through my Instagram feed this morning, a ritual I do all too often, I noticed that Bella Hadid posted numerous amounts of Instagram posts for her followers. Seeing that she is a model and one of the most beautiful woman on the planet (in my humble opinion), I was not surprised by the flurry of posts. What she was avidly persistent on showcasing was that she, along with her fellow “angels”, were getting ready for the gaudy event known as the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. She posed alongside her model friends such as Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Lily Aldridge who are all veterans of the annual Christmas event. Looking at the photos, all I saw were models showcasing that they were the special ones chosen for a most coveted role. As I scrolled down through the comments, however, I saw many comments mostly made by young girls about their own appearance and how they compared to Hadid and the others.
“Bella I wish i looked like you you’re gonna rock!”
“Their cheekbones are amazing I wish I had them!”
“They are all so beautiful I wish I was too.”
These were a few of the comments I saw that made me upset to say the least. However, these comments pertaining to the models are nothing new, and comparing oneself to a model from an industry that prizes stick thin bodies has been around since the modeling agency has. As far as I can remember in my own life, I had always compared myself to the models I saw on the newsstands. From their flawless skin to their rock-hard abs, I would look at them and then look at myself in the mirror and be so disappointed with that I saw. With the rise of social media and the internet, it is even easier to covet the bodies and lifestyles of these models. If being a young adult with just magazines was hard, I can only imagine what the adolescents of this age are feeling, especially when they see models like Bella Hadid.
Do not get me wrong. Some young adults can look at models and admire them for their confidence that they exude or their funky fashion choices or the way that they stand out in the modeling world. There are always two sides, a positive and a not-so positive, to the modeling world. The one that I see most often, however, are comments made by young girls and boys who want to be someone they are not because they do not truly love themselves. Of course when you are that young, you are going through a multitude of difficulties, from puberty to growing pains. What I hope some of these models can hopefully one day shed light on is that the modeling world is not at all as glamorous as it seems and that young boys and girls should learn to love themselves rather than wishing to be someone else.