Monday, October 18, 2010

"Beauty is not real. Beauty only exists in perception." -Unknown

At first this was going to be my status message, but what I needed to say called for something bigger: a note here which I'll copy-paste onto my blog as a blog post.

I am sick and tired of hearing stories from my sister in which her friends degrade themselves and call themselves "fat" when in fact they're skinnier than my sister (who's a normal weight for her age and height). And just now she said a four-year-old girl told her big sister (who's friends with my sister) that she shouldn't eat too much or she would get "fat".

NO. That is UNACCEPTABLE. Adults have got to STOP teaching their kids that weighing more than X means you're fat. And mothers who weigh less than I do (a normal, 16-year-old girl) are setting a VERY bad example for their daughters.

These daughters are, at 13, watching what they eat and talking about how "fat" they are on a daily basis. They turn to boys, try to get their attention, wear make-up and become obsessed with what's fashionable and what isn't all in an effort to rebuild the self-esteem that the adults around them have unintentionally destroyed.

I know too many girls who stopped paying attention to their grades and turned to boys all because they thought they were "ugly", "fat" and "worthless".

I can remember this one girl crying at a party because she thought she was ugly. This girl was and still is very pretty: she's short (which is NOT bad thing), has blue eyes and blonde hair and is petite. How on earth could she have thought she was ugly?

I used to be skinny--as in "people thought I was anorexic/bulimic" skinny. And I hated it. Sure, I got to eat as much as I wanted without gaining weight, but finding clothes that fit was a NIGHTMARE. I wished and wished that I would gain weight so I wouldn't need to wear a bloody belt anymore.

Now I weigh a normal weight and I can honestly say I love my body. Sure, I've got a "flabby" stomach (which my little brother points out whenever he can), but I'm not a supermodel--I'm a teenage girl who loves to write and read and who never exercises. Of COURSE I'm gonna have a little fat in certain areas. And yes, there are days when I wish I had a flat stomach, like some friends of mine, but they don't have flat stomachs because they don't eat, it's because they, can you guess?

Yes, they EXERCISE!

So either accept your body as it is or exercise. Or you know, maybe your perception of your own body has been skewed by the adults around you and in reality you're normal/on the skinny side but just can't see it. In that case, take a good look in the mirror--do you REALLY believe you're fat?

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