Okay people, let’s talk about self-love. Over the past couple of years, the term “body positivity” has transitioned from a social media hashtag to a full-on societal movement. In this piece, im going to share my thoughts on body positivity, how it helped my self-love journey and how it could help yours if it hasn’t already.
Whenever I think back to my life a few years ago in high school and how I felt about my body, I was SO OBSESSED with thinking about how I appeared in the eyes of other people. I always made sure to wear something kind of cute but that covered 80% of my body, even in the heat of an Oklahoma summer. I never left the house without a full face of makeup on and if I applied anything less such as leaving off the eyeliner, I felt ugly. Whenever I look back at pictures of myself during those times, I just want to shake the younger me and yell “YOU ARE BEAUTFUL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!”
During those years, the term “body positivity” didn’t really exist yet. It wasn’t “ideal” to have a tummy or a booty or big thighs or anything that wasn’t defined as being skinny. I was never a size 2 like the girls I saw all over social media. For young and impressionable teenagers, it can be hard to learn to love yourself when society didn’t appear to be accepting of how you already were.
Over time, I really learned to love my body just the way it is. I can admit that the body positivity movement has helped with that a lot. Being able to see curvy girls represent all of these popular brands such as Savage X Fenty or Fashion Nova is cool because just a couple years ago, plus size girls weren’t really represented well in the media. Now, every body is celebrated. All inclusivity has been expanded to clothing lines with a wide sizing range, makeup lines such as foundation shades that include every skin tone, etc. Our society has grown and has so much more room to grow. I feel like social media and our culture in general has never really been so accepting and that has slowly changed for the better.
Besides the movement, another thing that lead to self-love growth is that I no longer cared what people thought about me as long as I was happy. It’s important that every single individual knows that they are beautiful just the way they are. Just live your life because life is SO MUCH BETTER when you just stop caring. Life is also too short to live in constant fear of wanting to wear something cute but being scared of what people will think. Wear that crop top that. Rock that bikini. Who cares that you don’t have a bra on under your shirt, be free.
It’s 2020 and it is the best time yet to push yourself and step out of your comfort zones. Wear what you want and if anyone has a negative opinion about it, don’t waste your time worrying about opinions from people who don’t matter. Be brave sis, you got this. XOXO.