You get up from your bed, dress yourself and run to the bathroom to fix your hair. You tame the last few strands and then your eyes graze down your body. You can’t ignore it. Your thighs are touching and you can’t help but feel ashamed. You run to your room to put on pants and tell yourself you will wear them until you get your “situation” taken care of. You then begin to mentally plan out how you will run every day and maybe even skip a few meals. Hell, you could use it, right? You walk around campus feeling insecure and think people are judging you for your obvious flaw. You don’t participate as much in class and avoid social situations because someone might think you look disgusting.
What if I told you that you were beautiful? What if I told you that this intense obsession with a thigh gap and this overall notion that skinny is the ideal is all a lie? What if I told you little girls are watching you limit yourself and your potential, because you feel insecure about your thighs? How silly do you feel now?
I see this as an epidemic. Young girls are entering the Instagram, Facebook and Twitter worlds and seeing girls who have bodies that are extremely “attractive”. What they aren’t realizing is that this is not what they should strive towards. Everyone has a different body shape. My best friend is a skinny girl with little boobs. My roommate has an athletic body. I have big boobs and a big butt and have always been a bigger girl. We are all so different, but you know what we all have in common? We are all beautiful.
Courtesy: Pinterest
There is such a stigma about girls and women who do not have this shape. It drives young girls and many young women to turn to extreme means to achieve this unattainable goal. Girls are starving themselves, developing eating disorders, throwing up their food and hurting their health for the sake of “beauty”. This has to stop. Bodies are meant to be nourished, loved and accepted, not malnourished, hated and rejected. We need to start preaching this message to young girls and women so that when they reach adulthood, they are not brainwashed to repeat the cycle that previous women have helped progress in our society. If we start loving our bodies, thighs touching and all, we will not feel limited in life. We won’t be afraid to walk into a room and do exactly what we came there to do. We will not equate our worth with our weight. Once you accept yourself, it affects the rest of your life.
So, I advise any young girl or woman to look at herself and say she is beautiful. And if you are struggling with body image issues, use the many resources that FSU offers such as the Psychology Clinic and the University Counseling Center. Utilize these resources, forget what you have been taught and always remember that you are beautiful!
Psychology Clinic
Address: Department of Psychology 1107 W. Call Street Tallahassee, FL 32306
Phone: (850) 644-3006
Hours: Mon. – Thurs. 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., Fri. 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
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University Counseling Center
Address: 250 Askew Student Life Building 942 Learning Way Tallahassee, FL 32306
Phone: (850) 644- 8255
Hours: Mon. – Fri. 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.