Love yourself, without putting others down

When I was a little girl there were messages plastered all over the television and magazines telling girls that there was a standard of the "ideal" woman. Every single model and actress was a size 0, bright blonde hair, sporting DD's, extra tan skin, and big  lips. That was a very tough standard for girls to live up to. It caused a lot of pain for girls everywhere.  

With the entrance of social media, a whole new world has caused girls to struggle with their appearance and personality. It has continued to demonstrate that we are not measuring up. We are not thin or big enough, tall or short enough, we wear too much makeup or need to start wearing it, our hair is too intense or too boring, we are too tan or too white, too stiff in personality or too weird. It has yet again left girls dissatisfied with who they are.  

Our society has now come to the point where we are finally encouraging girls to love and appreciate themselves, which would be great if it ended there. The sad part is that women of influence have taken it to an extreme where they put others down in the process of building themselves up. We hear things such as "I'm so glad I have curves, because that's what real women look like", as if the shape of our body determines our value or worth as a woman.  Then the phrase "I don't care what other people think" is muttered. Wouldn't that be wonderful if people actually felt that way!

However, we know they care because we see girls taking extreme measures to become what they feel they need to be to please others. We see it in the form of being obsessed with the gym, constantly tanning and not worrying an ounce about skin cancer, turning to bulimia as a form of weight loss, and even many types of surgeries.  In our human nature, we also do this thing where we spew out ugly words without even recognizing it. I would say it's one of humanities worst qualities. We simply don't see it and we continue down this whirlwind of negativity.  

We need to become a society that only speaks in kindness, to ourselves and to others. We need to step back from the worlds so-called ideals and sees the beauty in everyone! We need to somehow learn to be OKAY with who we are in our personalties and appearances. 

If you are here reading this, I want you to hear this today...  

You are beautiful just the way you are!

You are beautiful for the curves on your body or for the skinny little thing that you are!

You are beautiful at 6 feet tall and you are beautiful at 4 feet tall.

You are beautiful with a rainbow colored mohawk and you are beautiful with your long natural blonde hair.

You deserve to be on the cover of a magazine whether you are a size 00 or a size 30.

You deserve to be loved by a man for who you are and not for who he thinks you should be.

You deserve friends that love you for the real you.

Don't feel the need to change, but embrace the YOU that God created.  And remember to love yourself and leave others out of it. That random girl on the sidewalk passing by is not a freebie to pick apart. That friend who is not around is not a target because she isn't around. Believe it or not, your enemy is not a target either. She is a human being with real feelings just like you. She wants to be loved just like the rest of us.

Let us love ourselves and build ourselves up while simultaneously loving and respecting others.  

Jillian Davis

Wife . Mom of 4 . Blogger . Hairstylist . Christian

http://www.asktheinstamom.com
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I just can't; the depression roller coaster