Self Love And Body Positivity

Throughout history, an ideal body image changes every year. This change mainly affects everyone, especially women. As women we always feel like we have a certain type of  standard to live up to in society.

Many women are forced to change who they are for the likeness and acceptance of someone else. This causes us to change who we truly are and destroy the love we have for ourselves.This huge change can lead to eating disorders, psychological distress, and most importantly, low self of esteem. In order to make this drastic change, they create unhealthy behaviors, such as skipping meals and eating less in order to have the same body image as what is portrayed in the media. 
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Growing up, I was always a plus size kind of girl. I looked different from all my friends and I still do. I had bigger thighs and more hips and more stomach with lots of stretch marks. As I am in my teeen years now, it started to affect me more often because that’s when people and my family members started to talk about my weight. Over the years I became very self conscious when it came to going out with my friends or just in general. I even saw a huge change in myself. I had more of an attitude all of the time and I just wasn’t happy with the person I was. My self love was destoryed for a long time. It took me a long time to realize that everyone has insecurities and has one thing that they don’t like about themselves. But some people decide to flaunt their insecurities and not let it bother them while others decide to live in their insecurities and worry about it for the rest of their life. 

For me I decided to make a long term decision to love my body and embrace it for what it is,  no  matter what.  We only have one life to live and it makes no sense to worry about society's opinions. 
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Realizing your self worth has little to do with your body and more with your mind. Focus more on how you want to be remembered or all the things you have accomplished. This is what Society needs more of. Your self love, self care, mental health and just your overall well being is extremely important. ​

Here are some tips to improve your self care:

• Take a day off of social media and stop comparing yourself to models online. Social media is a place for people to portray how they want you to see them, it is not real life. Tap into your inner self. 
• Look in the mirror every morning and every night and state the things you love about yourself. Always be kind to yourself because if not no one will. 
•  Most importantly, stay true to yourself and surround yourself with positivety. As women we already do enough in this world that always go unappreciated.

 Enough is enough and we should stop listening to these standards and live the life we want to live. We should all be able to dress how we want to dress and wear what we want to wear. All bodies should be praised no matter what. Never let no one tell you you're not worthy enough. Remember that you are always good enough and smart. Don’t let anyone take that shine away from you. 

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Written By Kiana Wright

Kiana Wright is a rising high school senior who participated in The Miseducation of Brown Girls Summer Leadership Academy.