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You Don’t Look Like a Victoria’s Secret Angel, and That’s Ok

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Tatum Pederson
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Elon chapter.

Photo accessed from: Instagram.com/victoriassecret

I have a girl crush. Wait, I take that back. I have about 20 girl crushes. In fact, I have a girl crush on every Victoria’s Secret Angel who struts her stuff down the runway each year.

Growing up, the VS Fashion Show was a chance for me to eat chinese with my BFF and groan about all of the beautiful bodies and faces. As I got older, I started to obsess over these girls and I mean obsess.

Social media has become a power tool that has helped me follow my favorite angels and girl crushes wherever they go. Legends like Candice Swanepoel and newbies like Josephine, Taylor and Romee fill up my Instagram and Snapchat feeds. The endless amounts of beautiful girls fuel my obsession to strive for perfection.

As I get older and finish my last year of college, I finally realize that my body is my body and it will never look the way I envision a Victoria’s Secret Angel’s body to be.

As I get older and finish my last year of college, I am starting to realize that it’s ok.

I have always imagined that I would one day wake up and reach this false idea of ideal beauty that many of the Victoria’s Secret Angel’s possess in pictures and videos. Well, news flash Tatum- it ain’t happening.

We live in an era that is slowly starting to fix and clean up the way children, teenagers and women feel about their body and looks. It makes me happy that beauty can now shine in all different shapes, genders and races. 

This year, I finally realized that Victoria’s Secret Angels are not the only form of beauty on this planet and I am pretty damn proud of that.

Of course, my Snapchat story will be filled with my favorite angels making their debute on the runway tonight, but I won’t be quick to forget how important it is to love yourself and your body.

We are all critical about ourselves, no matter how beautiful the world may think we are, but is important to remember there is no opinion about yourself that is greater than your own. Take a deep breathe in the mirror each day and remember why your family and friends choose to love you endlessly.

Embrace the body you were given and remember that we all have our flaws, even if Instagram fails to show them.

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My name is Tatum Pederson and I am a senior at Elon University majoring in Journalism and minoring in Digital Art. I am currently Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Elon and I am an Entertainment Editor for Elon University’s magazine, The Edge. This summer, I was an Entertainment Intern at Niche Media in New York City. I learned how to transcribe interviews, assist at photo shoots, and conduct research on various entertainment topics. Last year, I was an Art and Editorial Intern at ELLE Decor magazine. At this internship, I worked closely with the Editor-in-Chief, Michael Boodro. I edited a “Behind The Scenes” video for the September 2014 Online Shopping section and was also published in the October 2014 issue. Two summers ago, I was an Entertainment Intern for Pink and Black magazine. I researched and wrote numerous articles involving media and entertainment. I am an extremely organized and creative student with experience in both a fast-paced environment and the magazine industry.