A Girl's Survival Guide

How to: Love Your Body

b e i g e  a e s t h e t i c

Step 1: Look at your tummy. Pat it gently. It is so cute.

Step 2: Look at your thighs and your butt. Wiggle them. They are so cute.

Step 3: Look at all of your body parts. Blow kisses at home and tell them they are so cute.

Step 4: Don't say mean things about them even if sometimes you get mad at them, they are part of you and they are so cute and you are so cute.

(Yes, I stole that from Tumblr. But it worked didn't it.)

I hope you guys know that I love all of you, and for those of you who didn't know that, I hope you know now. I don't want any of you to hate how you look, because that's upsetting and it hurts me to think that there are many of you who aren't confident because you don't fit society's standards.

Society's standards are quite difficult aren't they? You have to act and look a certain way to fit in, and in my opinion being upset with myself just to fit in is not how I want to live my life.

I want to live my life being able to look back on it and thinking that I was a really happy person because I embraced who I was and took control of my life, living it the way I wanted to.

Is there even a right way to fitting in? It seems like no matter how hard we try, society's standards are just raised.

If you wear makeup, you're "false advertising." Excuse me, I didn't realize I was just a product waiting to be sold.

If you don't wear makeup, you're pressured to do so because it'll "make you prettier than you are."

I would just like to let you guys know that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and that sometimes you need to take a step back and look at yourself from a positive point of view. Flowers are beautiful, but so is fresh-fallen snow and they are completely different.

Kind of like people!

If losing weight would make you happy, go for it, strive for your goals, but I beg of you, please go about it in a healthy way. Don't starve yourself, exercise too much, or compare yourself to others, it's not worth it.

Please come to terms with your body, whether you're thin, average, or on the chubby side (I don't like offending people, please don't take offense) I want you to be a positive person that enjoys being who they are.

I'm going to take a bet and say that most of my readers are teenagers like me, and I just want you guys to know that people don't only see your acne or your weight. If the people you surround yourself are friends that you can always count on, count on them to be mature enough to dismiss those things without a second thought.

If they don't, are they really mature enough to be your friends?

This is how I think of things, let me give you an actual example. I'm a bit insecure about my breast size.

Done. Said it. I don't care who knows it, all my friends and family know. I'm in college and I'm literally a size 32A, the smallest. Do I care? Some of the time. But can I change that?

Not at all.

I've come to terms with it. I've accepted my body for what it's doing, I even used to say that I'm a late bloomer. Now I know that this is it. That's okay, because nobody but me cares about my chest size. Nobody pays attention or judges me for it. And that's what I realized in high school.

Everyone gets acne at some point in their lives. Everyone is insecure about something. Blondes get stereotyped for being dumb. Girls who are skinny get stereotyped for being fake. Girls on the chubby side get stereotyped just as much.

You can't make the world happy, no one has.

Make yourself happy instead.

"Curvy girls are just as beautiful as skinny girls. You know what that also means? Skinny girls are just as beautiful as curvy girls. Don't bash one to lift the other up then act like that's body-positive."

"Why should you change something as beautiful and complex as your body when they won't change something as simple as their mind?"

"Your body. Your rules. Do not let society screw you up!"