What is beautiful? Am I pretty? Am I thin enough? These are just some questions that many young women ask themselves on a daily basis. Our society is obsessed with being the “prettiest” person in the room. But is our idea of what we consider beautiful skewed?
Most young girls believe that they have to be a size 0, tan, and have perfect skin to be considered beautiful. Certain figures are publicized in the media showing what should be considered beautiful. Today’s girls, especially us collegiettes, just want to fit in and feel like we have fit into that mold. The media allows us to think differently and leads us to believe that we have to change ourselves in order to be beautiful. This media-driven bullying is not okay and has consequences that are far more impactful than fashion trends including fostering eating disorders and negative self esteem issues. Recently, there have been several attempts to break this mold.
Ashley Graham and Sports Illustrated are perfect examples of this. The 2016 Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Edition featured three different covers featuring three different girls, Rhonda Rousey, Ashley Graham, and Hailey Clauson. Three very different body types, but all considered beautiful. The cover that seemed to turn the most heads was Ashley Graham’s cover. She is considered a “plus-size” model at size 14 and has modeled for Lane Bryant as well as being featured on the cover of Elle Quebec. The fact that Sports Illustrated decided to feature a plus size model on their cover speaks volumes. This action will show women that you are beautiful no matter what size you are and hopefully more companies and campaigns can keep the positive momentum that Sports Illustrated has set.
Another act of inspiring body positivity as well as illustrating what it means to be beautiful comes from one of our favorite stores, Aerie. The Aerie Real campaign features models of various sizes but the best part about the campaign is that the photos have not been retouched at all. They have recently hired their first full figure model Barbie Ferreira who is proud to show off her curves. Since the company launched the “Aerie Real” campaign in 2014 they vow “the real you is sexy”. Their motto for the campaign has been “We want every girl to feel good about who they are and what they look like, inside and out”. We hope this awesome company can keep the momentum going with this inspiring messages. We also can’t forget about the time our girl Gigi Hadid fought off the haters making comments on her body. She wrote on Instagram:
Yes, I have boobs. Yes, I have abs, I have a butt, I have thighs, but I’m not asking for special treatment. I’m fitting into the sample sizes. Your mean comments don’t make me want to change my body, they don’t make me want to say no to the designers that ask me to be in their shows, and they definitely don’t change the designers opinions of me.
This is exactly what we needed to hear especially from a gorgeous girl like Gigi. If the media starts hating on her perfect body than how are we supposed to view our own bodies in a positive light?
No matter what anyone says, know that your body is perfect no matter what. Continue to exercise and eat healthy and enjoy the body you have. Enjoy all life has to offer without the added stress of continually self- judging. Together we can move forward and learn to love ourselves inside and out.