We’ve all been there, endlessly scrolling through social media while comparing our beautiful and unique bodies to altered and filtered pictures of strangers online. I, for one, have been in that position. “Why can’t I look like them? Why don’t I have lips like that person? How can my skin look as smooth as them? Am I too fat? Too skinny? Am I beautiful enough?” are all thoughts that have crossed my mind many times. It’s sad to talk about myself that way when I know nobody’s the same and I’m my own person with different physical traits, but the feeling of self-doubt lingers.
Lip fillers, jaw and facial reconstruction surgeries, rhinoplasty, tanning, BBL’s, liposuction… The list goes on. It’s crazy how there’s a “corrective” procedure for every part of our bodies, as if they need fixing in the first place. The rise of plastic surgery has increased over the past decade with social media being one of the main ways people communicate nowadays, and no surprise at that. Now that people have platforms where they compare themselves to others unconsciously, a lot of them incline to surgery to alter their looks to look like the people they see in movies and social media.
There are people saying that surgeons who perform these kinds of (oftentimes risky) cosmetic procedures profit off of the insecurities of their clients. The unattainable beauty standards society has brought on us women, men, and people alike exist, and what better way to get rid of that noticeable brown mole on your left cheek, suck the fat from your double chin or inject hyaluronic acid into the same thin lips you consider unattractive than to “fix” them? The truth is that a lot of places that do these procedures indirectly market their products similar to my previous statements, feeding off of the insecurities of women.
Personally, I’ve only recently struggled to accept my “baby face.” I realized how my round cheeks made me look way younger than I really am, and one might think: “How is that a bad thing?” Well the truth is that even though I’m an adult, I often feel like I haven’t “grown physically” and I still look like how I used to back in high school. What’s more, seeing so many people try the mewing method and end up with cut jawlines made me rather jealous. And I have to admit, I almost fell into that rabbit hole when I searched for “How to remove face fat” until I watched the first video that appeared. It changed my whole perspective on women’s beauty standards and how I view myself; little by little I was able to not only accept my “baby face” but embrace my chubby cheeks as well. I’m so incredibly grateful that people like Stephanie Lange (the creator of the video) are stepping up to the reality of what social media and the beauty standards of the 21st century have become.
Comparing ourselves to other people is inevitable, which is why it’s important for ourselves to recognize the impact of these beauty standards on our everyday lives. Here’s the truth: no woman possesses all of society’s “check-list” of what a woman should look like, and we shouldn’t live our lives trying to chase that unattainable body. We can’t expect ourselves to fit the unrealistic mold given to us, so what we should do instead is accept the parts of ourselves that we deem as “imperfections” and embrace the beauty we already have.