Body Image. From a girl.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of Eating Disorders, insecurities, and body size.
This blog post has my biased opinion.
I am 13.
That sounds weird. Starting off a blog post with, “I am 13”.
I was born in the late 2000s, the year the first iPhone was made. All I have ever known was the internet. The internet and magazines that were specifically focusing on all of the “pretty” girls.
I remember the first time I thought I was gross because of my weight. I was seven years old, and a girl behind me called me fat. She said the word fat as if it were the worst thing to ever exist. That night I went home, looked myself in the mirror, and started crying.
Some people might be reading this and be thinking, “Wow! That is so young!” others will think, “Only seven? Lucky.”
53% of 13 year old American girls are insecure about their body size. 78% of 17 year old American girls are insecure about their body size. Nobody should be worried about how “gross” their body is.
“What about health? It’s not healthy to be overweight.”
You’re right. It’s not healthy to be overweight. It’s also not healthy to be underweight. Or to struggle through eating disorders. Also we as humans don’t have the power to look at others and measure on scale from 1–10 how healthy that person is. A person’s health is between them and their doctor. Nobody else.
“You can’t be confident if you’re fat.”
Yes. Yes, you can. A person’s confidence is not based off of their weight, it’s based off of their happiness. Respect every single body.
“You must be very confident about your body size if you are writing about body image.”
No. I hate my body. Every single day I am pulling and squeezing different parts of my body just wishing it would go away. Wishing I looked different. Everyday I think to myself, “Why can’t I look like the other girls?” But I don’t want to think this. I want to think, “I want to be happy and healthy.” Without looking or comparing my body to other girls.
Having the perfect body is impossible. Currently you have to have a big butt, big breasts, skinny waist, and a thigh gap. That’s impossible. Literally impossible. If you have a big butt chances are you won’t have a thigh gap. If you have big breasts, chances are you won’t have a skinny waist.
I am 13, and I am aware of body standards, and what I am “supposed” to look like. Does that make you think this society is messed up? If it doesn’t, maybe you should check yourself.
This is website I used for some of the statistics I used. Please don’t argue with facts based off of studies.
