Love Yourself

We’ve all been told on how we should look. Clearer skin, flatter stomach, lighter skin, straighter hair, taller body, and so on. Caring about our appearance is important. But making it the center of our life is what makes it toxic. Girls from a very young age has been contaminated with the mindset on how to look “perfect” by people around them. Social media hasn’t been helping with this issue instead it’s making it worse. It seems that wherever we look, we’re told we’re not perfect enough.

 

Toxic beauty standard normalize unrealistic and narrowly defined beauty standard. Social media constantly promotes potentially harmful beauty practices. Suggesting that the key to building self esteem is by physical “perfection, when in reality, beauty is so much more than how you look from the outside. Beauty should also be reflected by who you are on the inside—who you are as a person, what you love doing, your mindset, your attitude, and so much more.

 

The YouGov study in 2019 has found that every one in eight adults in Britain experienced suicidal thoughts due to concern about their body image. It’s obvious that this beauty standard has caused problem in our society.  Women who don’t fit the standard are given the unsolicited advice from pre-teens and well into adulthood sadly making them have crushingly low self-esteem. This cycle often start from their mothers who projects this mindset to their kids this crazy beauty regimes from a very young age to avoid bullying or judgement from society. It’s a sad reality of our community.

 

Instead of following the unrealistic, ever-growing beauty standards, what we should do is start being ourselves. Embrace yourself for who you are, not who you could be. Remember that you are perfect just the way you are, and you shouldn’t change yourself for anyone—especially not some random celebrity with a skinny figure. Love yourself!

Written by Angelina Christina XII MIPA 5