Let me start off by saying that EVERYONE is beautiful, please don’t misconstrue anything I say to be any kind of body-shaming.
Since this week was New York Fashion Week, I have been seeing articles featuring an up-and-coming plus-sized model. She is beyond gorgeous, and let me tell you, she slays the runway and looks fabulous in anything she wears. But I don’t like to watch her. I don’t like to watch her for the same reason I don’t like to watch a Victoria’s Secret model: I don’t look like her. As much as I don’t relate to being a size 2, I don’t relate to being a size 22.
The stigma of the modeling world has been that if you don’t look slim or tall enough, you won’t make it, but now that plus-sized models are receiving more and more recognition (as they should), that concept is slowly fading. Fortuntely, these models give many young girls a standard of beauty they can relate you. Unfortunately, many girls who are who are an average size, who are a size 10 or 12, who are just in between, still do not have models that look like them on magazine stands.
As a very average teenage girl, I read magazines and watch TV not expecting to see anyone with the same build as I do. I’m not saying that a model should be anyone’s role model, but lots of young women and girls look up to these women and strive to look like them, thus creating an unhealthy self-image. There are women who are size 2 because they have narrow hips, some who have a shorter torso, or shorter legs. There isn’t one size of size 2. There are women who are a size 22 because of their bust line, or their waistline, or broad shoulders and athletic thighs. There isn’t one size of size 22. There isn’t just one of any size.
We have to start projecting a wider and more realistic variety of women in our culture. This is why we have to have self-esteem seminars, or conversations about “Yes, you are good enough.” We all know women come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors…I guess some people haven’t gotten the message yet. Our culture is being reactive instead of proactive and many young women are suffering in the process, feeling left out. Of course it’s okay to be a size 2, or a size 22, but it’s also okay to be size 12, or 6, or 25, or 18, or 3.