Hello Beautiful
Updated: Dec 16, 2020
BY SOPHIA REBOLLEDO
In today’s society, with all our new technology, we are surrounded by the world of social media. Social media is a curated and filtered illusion of people’s lives giving young boys and girls goals of unattainable bodies and appearances constructed by society. Social media is only growing making it more detrimental. Are these goals attainable? Are they achievable? The answers to both of these questions are no, they are not. 68% of American 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies and this increases to 78% by the time they are 17 years old causing to self objectification. Self objectification is monitoring your body from an outsider’s perspective which leads to harmful coping mechanisms such as self harm which includes distorted eating, eating disorders, abusive alcohol and drugs. 12 times more teens are likely to die from some kind of eating disorder than any other illness.
We need to not only redefine the look of beauty, but its meaning and value in our lives. The message today is that all women and men are beautiful and flaws are good. However, this message does not fix the suffering from the unattainable forms of beauty as preaching we all look beautiful still defines us by beauty. We should not focus on how men’s and women’s bodies should be viewed as valuable but that the men and women themselves are valued as more than bodies to be viewed.
The steps we need to take in order to stop self-harm is learning to see more. See more in our media and abolish the cultural messages that distort our ideas of beauty. Only then can we see more in ourselves, and others. When we can see more, we can be more.
Positive affirmations...
- You are capable and worthy of everything the world has to offer
- You are the only person you need to be good enough for
- Self-love first
- See the good in all things
- Aspire not to have more but be more
- A little more kindness, a little less judgement
-Life is tough but so are you
-YOU ARE ENOUGH
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Sophia Rebolledo