I have always struggled with body image. Growing up I was called fat, made fun of for what I looked like and numerous other things. I was always self-conscious of my body. I only wore clothes that would make me look skinnier, not clothes that I felt comfortable in.
Society has these expectations that only one body type is acceptable. In the media, there’s barely any representation of women who are overweight. I grew up with this expectation that I had to be skinny because that’s all I saw in the media. The media tells their audience that each body type has to dress a certain way. For example, they say that fat people can’t wear bright colors or crop tops and that they should stick to solid colors that are slimming.
I always had this pressure to lose weight. No one ever told me that the way I looked was okay. Whenever I would tell someone that I wanted to lose weight, they would respond with “Good for you!” or “I’ll start working out with you!”
Once I began to feel more comfortable in my skin, I felt much better about myself. This didn’t happen overnight. I didn’t wake up one day and say “I feel comfortable in my skin.”
I began wearing clothes that made me feel happy and that I liked. I wore things that I wanted to wear and didn’t solely focus on what I was eating. Of course, I have bad days. There are days that I’ll look at myself in the mirror and hate what I see, but the days that you feel shitty about your body shouldn’t take over your life.