I will be honest here. In high school, I danced at a studio every day, ate like absolute garbage and looked like a stick figure. Almost three years out of high school now, and I can confidently say I no longer look like that at all and that is completely normal. I don’t look like a child anymore, nor should I. With that being said, let me be the one to enlighten you about some things no one told me would happen to my body after high school.
- WEIGHT GAIN
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I wish someone would have warned me about this one especially. Since high school, I have gained around 15 pounds, and I am still actively trying to accept something so normal. Scientifically speaking here, your metabolism and hormones change as you get older, making weight gain pretty much a guarantee. Realistically speaking, though, college-age adults are more likely to eat worse since there’s fast food readily available, and adults live a more sedentary lifestyle compared to children. Not to mention the obvious answer for a lot of us too, birth control, which is a huge cause of weight gain. And none of that is a bad thing; it is just a thing that is happening regardless of what we want.
- STRETCH MARKS
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I knew stretch marks were normal for moms after hearing about how having kids ruined their bodies and kids going through puberty, but I didn’t know I could randomly get gifted some on a random Thursday afternoon. They are usually caused by your skin stretching faster than it is used to, like weight gain. For women, a lot of the time the culprit of this is … you guessed it: birth control. This is due to many of the side effects being weight gain, swelling or bloating. An estimated 50 to 90 percent of women have them, according to WebMD, so at this point, it should have been normalized a lifetime or two ago. Stretch marks fade over time, so it’s not a big deal, but even if they didn’t, who cares, pretty much everyone has some.
- GRAVITY STARTS HITTING “THE GIRLS” EARLIER
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Yes, that’s exactly what I am talking about. Whether they are on the smaller side or the complete opposite, gravity will hit them sooner than you expect. As we all know and support, though, no matter the size, shape or newfound lack of perkiness, they are all beautiful no matter what.
- GETTING HIPS
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I would like to start with the main idea here: your clothes should fit you, never you fitting into clothes. I will never fit into my size 2 jeans again, and although I may keep my favorite pair of vintage jeans in my closet just in case, we all know they will never button again. That was before curves, hips and finally a hint of some junk in the nonexistent trunk. Let’s think biologically. Your body is preparing for its childbearing years, whether that will be useful to you or not. For you to be readily equipped for that, some changes have to be made.
- ACNE DOESN’T GO AWAY
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This one is just a huge misrepresentation from middle and high school. Adults always say acne is bad going through puberty and then it’s supposed to magically disappear, but that is just simply not true. Joshua Zeichner, a board-certified dermatologist, told Shape Magazine that although acne is at its worst through the teenage years, 45 percent of women between the ages of 21 and 30 reported dealing with adult acne. Some of this can be blamed on hormones, in addition to stress, eating starch-filled foods, smoking and makeup.
- CELLULITE
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Another thing I was not prepared to be self-conscious about when looking in the mirror before I get into the shower, but there’s legitimately no reason to be. 90 percent of women and 10 percent of men deal with cellulite. Fun fact: women get cellulite around their knees, hips and buttocks since they have three layers of fat in those areas rather than just one in other areas, according to Scientific American’s interview with osteopathic physician Lionel Bissoon.
Overall, I am actively trying to understand that my body will always be changing and that is not only normal but should be seen as beautiful. Our bodies will change and adapt and there’s nothing that will stop that. I don’t look at pictures of myself at 16 and wish I still looked like that because I was a child with a child’s body. We are beautiful and our bodies know what they are going through, so we need to learn to appreciate and accept them.