As a young woman in today’s society, I know that it can feel like there is a lot of pressure on us females to look a certain way and to find the perfect angles. This can feel especially difficult in the age of social media and reality shows in which the highest form of compliment is letting the other know that they “look skinny today” and- well, you get the point.
Over the past year or so, I have been struggling with the realization that as I’ve grown older, my body has started to change in a way that I wasn’t so happy with. By now, I’ve come to understand that I will not be small and 14 forever, which is completely fine. But when that hard truth starts to feel like a bitter taste in my mouth, I find myself doing what some people might advise against: I go on TikTok.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. TikTok probably isn’t the best place to go for some reassurance, and my ‘For You’ page is just going to show me women that I’ll only ever compare myself to. This may be true, but if I were to look through the #bodypostivity tags and let that algorithm meet my FYP, I think you’d be surprised how comforting you may feel.
The second creator mentioned has not disclosed her name and is much more of an underground creator but has made an amazing mark in terms of honesty with her followers and uses creative analogies to help people see things from new perspectives. I think it’s important that the empowerment she provides on TikTok gets the spotlight it deserves.
While there have always been positive influencers that stand for body positivity on outlets such as Instagram and Twitter, I think it is important for these messages to be spread on new platforms as social media evolves. On every app that we click, we should be able to receive the helpful reminder that all bodies are beautiful and that small-sized, mid-sized, and plus-sized women deserve to rock a cute bikini!