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morethanamillennial · 5 years

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You're More Than Beach Body Ready...Body Positive from Zero to Hero

The year is 2019 and guess what… women are still being judged by their body image, the stigma, and the pressure of ‘beach body ready’ every single summer graces the headlines of magazines. Yet you always see an article the following month, about how size doesn’t matter, we should love ourselves, why does the media body shame etc the list goes on. These very publications who want us to be happy in our bodies still encourage us to be beach ready, it’s so patronizing not to mention confusing. Imagine being a teenager and reading such articles, when I was a teenager…..what feels like forever ago I adored Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. They dominated our screens, ruled MTV with their phenomenal hit show ‘The Simple Life’, my childhood best friend and I loved these two we dressed like them, spoke like them and to this day quote lines in birthday cards and affectionately call ‘Silly and Billy.’

I always somewhat related to Nicole Richie, who at the time was a healthy size 12/14 and I resonated with her so much, she was sarcastic and didn’t really care what people thought. To this day I like to carry that notion. I never wanted to be a Paris Hilton. I wasn’t barbie enough and of course did not have the slim slender long body. I’m 4ft 10 with boobs and a big bum.

And for me that was always okay, they were both two gorgeous funny girls and to me the size never mattered. Yet the MTV generation was obsessed with size zero and pinning girls against each other. I was always comfortable with my size until Jessica Simpson appeared her ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’. Climbing a car in a teeny tiny bikini ‘washing’ the car mashing looked degrading and cringey, to me. During the Daisy Duke film promo she was everywhere and was hailed as the model size, this is the one and only time I have ever looked at myself like um excuse me why do I not look like that?

Luckily I snapped out if it relatively quickly, and since then I do believe the media has a role to play in the way women view themselves. The rise in social media for today’s girls must be pure hell, whilst at school during the early 00’s the most happening thing was MSN. We all have days where we prod and pinch places we hate and want to improve, why don’t we ever focus on the bits we LOVE, the bits that have made outfits look amazing, accentuate things that other people perhaps couldn’t wear. We take our bodies for granted and how much they do for us. It sounds corny, but just think about what it does and how we abuse it with silly words such as fat, gross, cellulite, etc

If you need a body positive person in your life and you cannot fathom why you are perfect besides the wise words of Rupaul, ‘If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?’ Let me introduce the archangel that is Jameela Jamil, not only does she reveal the truth with past media work, highlighting just how ridiculous it can be showcased through her own relationship via them airbrushing her legs, even making her arms longer. Her social media is a beacon of light that a lot of girls young and old have needed to hear. Get following her instagram movement I-Weigh, which posts inspirational stories from women of all backgrounds, it also showcases how fab woman and men are. Slowly but surely we are coming together to fight against body shaming, and that’s something to be proud of. Remind yourself that the battle starts within, and daily reinforcements of how wonderful you are, are a great way to start.

Instead of tearing each other down with put downs on ‘How fat/thin/chubby/slutty she looks,’ try to build one another up. The put downs are very mean girl orientated, in the end when Tina Fey strongly states “You have got to stop calling each other bitches and sluts, it only makes it okay for guys to call you bitches and sluts.” Reclaim these words back, spin them into a positive, stop letting little insecurities stop you from enjoying your best life, be healthy of course, but in mind too. We are more than just skin/weight ladies. You would shout at your friends if you hear them put down themselves, so why allow yourself to do the same?

The latest article in Cosmopolitan has steered the body positive movement in the right direction highlighting the importance of self love and the women who choose to love themselves in this lovely little article

May I recommend some strong, inspirational woman to follow to allow you to slowly love yourself one tweet, book, article at a time:

https://twitter.com/jameelajamil

https://twitter.com/ashleygraham

https://twitter.com/michellevisage

https://twitter.com/smrtgrls

https://twitter.com/supermajority

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#body pos #body positive #body posi #women empowerment #personal well-being #more than a millennial #millennials #mental health #body image #beautiful

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